Justice Thomas Todd
Today’s Justice of the Day is: THOMAS TODD. Justice Todd was born on this day, January 23, in 1765.
Justice Todd was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, and graduated from Liberty Hall Academy (today called Washington and Lee University) in 1783.
Justice Todd fought in the American Revolutionary War on the side of the Continental Army in 1779 and 1781. He spent much of his life as a clerk in various governmental offices in Kentucky, the state from which he would be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, including: the conventions seeking statehood for Kentucky (from 1784 to 1792); the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky (from 1789 to 1792); the Kentucky Constitutional Conventions (in 1792 and 1799); the Lexington Democratic Society (from 1793 to 1794); the Kentucky House of Representatives (from 1792 to 1801); and the Kentucky Court of Appeals (from 1799 to 1801). Justice Todd also worked in private practice in Danville, Kentucky during this time (from 1788 to 1801). In 1801, he joined the Kentucky Court of Appeals as a Judge, where he served for five years, after which he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, a position he would hold until his appointment to the SCUS.
Justice Todd was nominated by President Thomas Jefferson on February 28, 1807, to a new seat authorized by the United States Congress. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 2, and received his commission the following day. Justice Todd took the Judicial Oath to officially join the SCUS on or around May 4, and served out his entire tenure on the Marshall Court. His service was terminated on February 7, 1826, due to his death.
Justice Todd is not especially well-remembered today, perhaps owing to the fact that he did not write a single constitutional opinion while at the SCUS (most of his writing focused on land issues) and even missed five whole session of the Court due to personal or health issues. He did take part in one of the early Republic’s most important cases, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), where he joined a unanimous opinion of the Court authored by Chief Justice John Marshall which helped more clearly articulate and more firmly establish the idea of the supremacy of the Constitution and the Federal government over the states.