Justice Smith Thompson
Today’s Justice of the Day is: SMITH THOMPSON. Justice Thompson was born on this day, January 17, in 1768.
Justice Thompson was born in Amenia, New York, the state from which he would be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (today called Princeton University) in 1788.
In 1792, Justice Thompson entered private practice in Troy, New York for a year, before working as a private attorney in Poughkeepsie, New York from 1793 to 1802; during this time, he also served as a Member of the New York State Assembly in 1800 and a Delegate to the New York constitutional convention in 1801. He began serving as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature of New York in 1802, an office he would hold until he became Secretary of the Navy in 1818 (he was Chief Justice of that court during his final four years there). Justice Thompson went on to continuously serve as Secretary of the Navy until his appointment to the SCUS.
Justice Thompson received a recess appointment from President James Monroe to a seat vacated by Justice Henry Brockholst Livingston on September 1, 1823, took the Judicial Oath to officially join the SCUS that day, and was subsequently nominated to the same position by President Monroe on December 5. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 9, and received his commission that day. Justice Thompson served on the Marshall and Taney Courts, and his service was terminated on December 18, 1843, due to his death.
Justice Thompson joined the ranks of Justices who sought political office while on the bench when he (unsuccessfully) pursued the Governorship of his home state of New York in 1828. Because his tenure came after Chief Justice John Marshall’s transformative reforms of the SCUS’s jurisprudence, but before the slavery/Civil War-related controversies of the late Taney Court, he did not have an especially notable impact and is a largely forgotten figure today.