- Thomas Todd
Infobox Judge
name = Thomas Todd
imagesize = 200px
caption = Official Portrait
office = Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
termstart =May 4 ,1807
termend =February 7 ,1826
nominator =
appointer =Thomas Jefferson
predecessor = (none)
successor =Robert Trimble
office2 =
termstart2 =
termend2 =
nominator2 =
appointer2 =
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birthdate = birth date|1765|1|23|mf=y
birthplace =King and Queen County, Virginia
deathdate = death date and age|1826|2|7|1765|1|23|mf=y
deathplace =Frankfort, Kentucky , U.S.
spouse = Elizabeth Harris, Lucy Payne WashingtonThomas Todd (
23 January 1765 –7 February 1826 ) was an Americanattorney and U.S. Supreme Court justice. Raised in theColony of Virginia , he studied law and later participated in the founding ofKentucky , where he served as a clerk, judge, and justice. He was married twice and had a total of eight children. Todd joined the U.S. Supreme Court in 1807 and his handful oflegal opinion s there mostly concernedland claims .Early life
Todd was born in
King and Queen County, Virginia , on January 23, 1765.Kleber, John E. (ed.) (1992). "The Kentucky Encyclopedia", p. 888. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117720.] He was the youngest of five children. Both of his parents died when he was young. He was raisedPresbyterian . At the age of sixteen, Todd served in theAmerican Revolutionary War for six months and then returned home. He attendedLiberty Hall Academy inLexington, Virginia , which is nowWashington and Lee University , and graduated in 1783.Todd then became a tutor at Liberty Hall Academy in exchange for
room and board and instruction in thelaw . Todd studiedsurveying before moving toKentucky County (then part ofVirginia ) in 1783 when his first cousin,Harry Innes , was appointed to the Kentucky district of theVirginia Supreme Court . Todd was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1786, but he gained positions of influence by becoming a recorder.Career
Todd served as the clerk at five constitutional conventions between 1784 and 1792 where
Kentucky was seekingstatehood . He served as secretary to theKentucky State Legislature when Kentucky was admitted tothe Union in 1792. When theKentucky Court of Appeals , the State's highest court, was created in 1789, Todd became its chief clerk. In 1801, Todd was appointed aJustice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and in 1806 he was elevated toChief Justice .Marriage
Todd married
Elizabeth Harris in 1788 and they were the parents of five children: Elizabeth (Mrs. John Hanna), Ann Maria (Mrs. Edmund Starling), Harry Innes, Charles Scott, and John Harris. A year after Mrs. Todd's death in 1801, Todd married Lucy Payne Washington, the youngest sister ofDolley Madison and the widow of MajorGeorge Steptoe Washington , who was a nephew of PresidentGeorge Washington . Their three children wereWilliam J. Todd ,Madisonia Todd , andJames Madison Todd .Appointment to the Supreme Court
Todd was appointed to the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1807 by PresidentThomas Jefferson after Congress raised the number of seats on the court to seven. Todd served as a Supreme Court Justice until his death inFrankfort, Kentucky on February 7, 1826 at the age of 61. Todd was buried in the Innesfamily cemetery but laterexhume d and reinterred in the State Cemetery at Frankfort.Court opinions
Todd served under Chief Justice
John Marshall . Politically, Todd was a Jeffersonian. Although they had differentpolitical belief s, Todd adopted Marshall's views onjudicial interpretation , but did not write a single constitutional opinion. He was labelled the most insignificant U.S. Supreme Court justice byFrank H. Easterbrook in "The Most Insignificant Justice: Further Evidence", 50 U. Chi. L. Rev. 481 (1983). Todd wrote only fourteen opinions--eleven majority, two concurring and one dissenting. Ten of his eleven majority opinions involved disputed land andsurvey claim s.Todd's first reported opinion was a dissent to the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in "
Finley v. Lynn ". He concurred in all other opinions written by the Chief Justice. One of the more interesting of these cases was "Preston v. Browder ", where Todd upheld the right ofNorth Carolina to make land claim restrictions on filings that were made inIndian territory and violated theTreaty of the Long Island of Holston made by the state on July 20, 1777. His opinion in "Watts v. Lindsey's Heirs et al. ", explained confusing and complicatedland title problems which plagued earlysettler s of Kentucky.Todd's only Court opinion which did not involve land law was his last. In "
Riggs v. Taylor ", the Justice made the important procedural ruling, now taken for granted, that if it is intended to use an original document as evidence, then the original must be produced. But if the original is in the possession of the other party to the suit, who refuses to produce it, or if the original is lost or destroyed, thensecondary evidence will be admitted.Notes
References
* [http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/16/ http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/16/]
* [http://www.adherents.com/adh_sc.html http://www.adherents.com/adh_sc.html]
* [http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-todd http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-todd]
* [http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/histBio.html#todd http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/histBio.html#todd]
* [http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/tt-bio.html http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/tt-bio.html]
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