John Jay


John Rutledge


William Cushing


James Wilson


John Blair


James Iredell


Make 'em bobble!

The Annotated Bobblehead Justice John Rutledge

Rutledge is not holding a volume of the U.S. Reports because as an Associate Justice he participated in the adjudication of zero cases decided by the Court. After missing the Court's first three sittings in 1790 and 1791, he resigned in February 1791. (He returned to the Court briefly as Chief Justice in 1795.)
He was the first member of the Supreme Court appointed from South Carolina.
Rutledge is, to the best of our knowledge, the only member of the Court ever to resign in order to accept a position as chief justice of a state court. In his case it was the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions.

John Rutledge, 1790-1791, 1795

Despite his inactivity as an original member of the Supreme Court, John Rutledge played an important role in the early politics of South Carolina as an opponent of the Stamp Act, and was an active delegate and committee member at the First and Second Continental Congresses. He likewise attended the Constitutional Convention, supporting and recommending a number of important provisions, including a unitary executive based on a single person.

Rutledge was confirmed as Associate Justice in 1789. After leaving the court to serve in South Carolina, Rutledge was appointed Chief Justice to succeed John Jay in 1795 by Washington. His appointment was rejected by the Senate after Rutledge gave a lengthy and strongly-worded speech criticizing the Jay Treaty, which Congress had recently ratified. Bitterly disappointed and in failing health, he retired from public life.

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