Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth
Today’s Justice of the Day is: OLIVER ELLSWORTH. Chief Justice Ellsworth was born on this day, April 29, in 1745.
Chief Justice Ellsworth was born in Windsor, Connecticut, 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) with a B.A. in 1766.
Chief Justice Ellsworth first entered private practice in his home town of Windsor, working as a private attorney there from 1771 to 1775; during that time he served a two year-long term as a Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (starting in 1773). He took up private practice in Hartford, Connecticut for nine years, beginning later the same year that his previous stint as a private attorney ended; concurrently, he also served as a State’s Attorney in Hartford (from 1777 to 1785), a Delegate to the Continental Congress (from 1778 to 1783), a Member of the Connecticut Council of Safety (in 1779), and finished a year-long term as a Member of the Connecticut Governor’s Council (lasting from 1784 to 1785, which would be followed by another term on the same council, starting in 1801 and ending in 1807). Chief Justice Ellsworth was a Judge of the Connecticut Superior Court from 1784 to 1789, the year he took office as a Member of the United States Senate from his home state; during that time he was also a Delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention (in 1787). He would remain in the U.S. Senate until his appointment to the SCUS, and he served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France for the United States Department of State while on the bench (specifically from 1799 to 1800).
Chief Justice Ellsworth was nominated by President George Washington on March 3, 1796, to a seat vacated by Chief Justice John Rutledge. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 4, and received his commission that day. Chief Justice Ellsworth took the Judicial Oath to officially join the SCUS on March 8, and his service was terminated on September 30, 1800, due to his resignation.
Chief Justice Ellsworth is not particularly well-remembered today, owing in large part to his having been overshadowed by his successor, the great Chief Justice John Marshall. However, he made important contributions to the SCUS in his own right, such as by overseeing the Hylton v. United States (1796) case, which was the first ever controversy to address a constitutional challenge to an act of Congress (the case is not at all well-known today because the SCUS found the act under consideration constitutional).