Benjamin Robbins Curtis

Benjamin Robbins Curtis (November 4, 1809 – September 15, 1874) was an American attorney and United States Supreme Court Justice. Curtis was born in 1809 in Watertown, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1829, Phi Beta Kappa , attended Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1832. Curtis was appointed to the Supreme Court on 22 September 1851 by President Millard Fillmore. He was the first Supreme Court Justice to have a... more

Benjamin Robbins Curtis (November 4, 1809 – September 15, 1874) was an American attorney and United States Supreme Court Justice. Curtis was born in 1809 in Watertown, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1829, Phi Beta Kappa , attended Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1832. Curtis was appointed to the Supreme Court on 22 September 1851 by President Millard Fillmore. He was the first Supreme Court Justice to have actually received a law degree - his predecessors had either "read law" (a form of apprenticeship) or had attended a law school without receiving a degree. He was notable as one of the two dissenters in the Dred Scott case, where he argued against the majority's denial of the slave Scott's bid for emancipation. Curtis resigned in 1857 from the court because of the bitter feelings engendered by the case. In 1868, he served as President Andrew Johnson's lead defense attorney during the impeachment proceedings. His daughter, Annie Wroe Scollay... less