John Rutledge was a natural first-round pick for the Supreme Court. An accomplished statesman and patriot, Rutledge was a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, where he chaired the crucial Committee on Detail. Once the new federal government was in place, President Washington made Rutledge the second justice ever appointed to the nation’s highest court. But in early 1791, after just 15 months on the court, before hearing even a single case, he got a better offer—namely, to serve instead on South Carolina’s Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions.

“This State having thought proper to create the Office of Cheif [sic] Justice & offer it to me,” he explained in a letter to President Washington, “I conceive I could not with any Propriety refuse it.” So he proceeded to “inclose, & resign, my Commission, of an Associate Judge, of the United States.”