I. The Founding Court
1789–1801
Washington builds the first bench from scratch. Circuit riding, seriatim opinions, and a Court still inventing its own authority.
John Jay
Diplomat, co-author of The Federalist Papers, and negotiator of Jay's Treaty. Left the Court to serve as Governor of New York.
John Rutledge
Chairman of the Constitutional Convention's Committee of Detail — the man who drafted the first working text of the Constitution. His Senate rejection as Chief Justice remains the first in American history.
William Cushing
The longest-serving of Washington's original appointees and the last judge in America to wear a full wig on the bench. As Massachusetts Chief Justice he ruled slavery incompatible with the state constitution — the first judicial abolition of slavery in American history.
James Wilson
One of only six men to sign both the Declaration and the Constitution — and arguably the most important legal mind of the founding era that almost no one knows. Died fleeing creditors, the first sitting justice to die.
John Blair Jr.
One of only three Virginia delegates to sign the Constitution. Widely praised for penetrating to the heart of legal questions with clarity and without ego — and still without a biographer.
James Iredell
The lone dissenter in Chisholm v. Georgia, vindicated two years later by the Eleventh Amendment. The first strict constructionist on the Court — and the first proven right by history. Circuit riding killed him at 48.
Thomas Johnson
He nominated George Washington for Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army — and then history largely forgot him. First Governor of Maryland; served 14 months before circuit riding drove him off the bench.
William Paterson
Author of the New Jersey Plan at the Constitutional Convention — every small state's equal voice in the Senate traces to his refusal to back down. Helped draft the Judiciary Act of 1789. A city and a university carry his name.
Samuel Chase
The only Supreme Court justice ever impeached (1804). His Senate acquittal preserved judicial independence for the two centuries since.
Oliver Ellsworth
Primary drafter of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which created the federal court system. A towering figure in early constitutional law.