Benjamin Robbins Curtis, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1874)
Benjamin Robbins Curtis (November 4, 1809 – September 15, 1874) was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1851 to 1857. Curtis was the first and only Whig justice of the Supreme Court. He was also the first Supreme Court justice to have a formal legal degree and is the only justice to have resigned from the court over a matter of principle. He successfully acted as chief defence counsel for the Impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson during the first presidential impeachment trial, and is notable as one of the two dissenters in the Dred Scott decision.