Gabriel Duvall

Gabriel Duvall lived from December 6, 1752 to March 6, 1844 and was an American politician and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1835, during the Marshall Court. He previously served as Comptroller of the Treasury, a Maryland state court judge, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland, and a Maryland state legislator. Whether Duvall deserves the title of most insignificant justice in the history of the Supreme Court has been the subject of academic debate, notably a 1983 exchange between University of Chicago law professors David P. Currie and Frank H. Easterbrook, with Currie arguing that Duvall achieved an enviable standard of insignificance against which all other justices must be measured, and Easterbrook responding that Duvalls colleague, Justice Thomas Todd, was even more insignificant.