Who is the most insignificant Justice according to Chief Justice Roberts?

November 9th, 2009

None other than Justice Gabriel Duvall, of course.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ze4fL5itU&feature=player_embedded]

From Wikipedia:

In the twenty-three years he sat on the Supreme Court, Duvall penned an opinion in only seventeen cases. For all of Duvall’s tenure, John Marshall presided as Chief Justice. In only two cases, does the record show the two men holding different opinions. In Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 518 (1819), Duvall offered only a brief note calling attention to French law on the irrevocability of royal charters. In Mima Queen v. Hepburn, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 290 (1834), Duvall would have authorized the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia to accept hearsay evidence proving the emancipation of a slave by her owner, but the rest of the Court, per the Chief Justice, decided against it.

H/T Moin Y. on FB.