List of people who have served in all three branches of the United States federal government

John Marshall was probably the most important figure to serve in all three branches. Although his periods of service in Congress and as Secretary of State were both brief, he was Chief Justice of the United States for nearly 35 years, and had a powerful influence on the development of the Supreme Court.

Following is a list of persons who have served in all three branches of the United States federal government. Membership in this list is limited to persons who have:

1. served in the executive branch, as President of the United States, Vice President, a Cabinet officer, or another executive branch office requiring confirmation by the United States Senate; and
2. served as a member of either the United States Senate or of the House of Representatives; and
3. served as a United States federal judge on a court established under Article Three of the United States Constitution.

Summary

Forty-five men can claim to have served in all three federal government branches. The first person to achieve this distinction was John Marshall, when he was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1801, having briefly served in Congress and as Secretary of State. The most recent person to join the list was James L. Buckley, who had already been President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a U.S. Senator when he was appointed to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in 1985. The last person to be in office as part of such service, Donald S. Russell, then on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, left that office upon his death in 1998.

Of those who have served in all three branches, fifteen served as United States Attorneys; five served as Attorney General; five served as Secretary of the Navy; three served as Secretary of the Treasury; three served as Postmaster General, two while this office was still a cabinet post; two served as Secretary of State; two served as Secretary of War; two served as Secretary of the Interior; two served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue; two served as Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization; and one served as Secretary of Labor. Three held multiple Cabinet posts. Although many Presidents and Vice Presidents have also served in Congress, and one later served on the Supreme Court, none has ever served in all three branches. One President, William Howard Taft did head both the Executive and Judicial Branches, having later served as Chief Justice.

With respect to legislative service, sixteen of these men were senators and thirty-four were representatives, of which, five served in both houses of Congress. The states from which they were elected are largely diverse, though thirteen states have multiple members on the list; New York and Virginia tie for the most with four, followed by Ohio with three.

With respect to Judicial service, the tendency is toward higher office. Twelve members of the list served on the Supreme Court of the United States — three as chief justice. Of the other thirty, eight served on one of the federal courts of appeals (called federal circuit courts pre-1912), three went from a district court to a circuit court, and twenty-four garnered their judicial branch service in district court judgeships alone. Two of the Supreme Court Justices on the list had previously served on federal circuit courts. For thirty-three of the members of the list, their judicial appointment was also their final point of service. One Supreme Court justice, two Circuit Court judges and seven District Court judges resigned from the bench to take posts in the executive branch and one Circuit Court judge and four District Court judges resigned from the bench to join the United States Senate.

Seven people on the list—James F. Byrnes, Salmon P. Chase, Mahlon Dickerson, John J. Hickey, Thomas B. Robertson, Donald S. Russell, and Levi Woodbury—have, in addition to their varied federal government service, also served as governor of a U.S. state.

List

Image	Person	Executive branch service	Legislative branch service	Judicial branch service
	James L. Buckley	Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, 1981–1982 President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1982–1985	Senator, New York, 1971–1977	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 1985–1996
	James F. Byrnes	Director, Office of Economic Stabilization, 1942–1943 Chairman, Office of War Mobilization, 1943–1945 Secretary of State, 1945–1947	Representative, South Carolina, 1911–1925 Senator, South Carolina, 1931–1941	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1941–1942
	Salmon P. Chase	Secretary of the Treasury, 1861–1864	Senator, Ohio, 1849–1855; 1861	Chief Justice of the United States, 1864–1873
	Henry De Lamar Clayton Jr.	United States Attorney, Middle District of Alabama, 1893–1896	Representative, Alabama, 1897–1914	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, 1914–1929
	Nathan Clifford	Attorney General, 1846–1848 Minister to Mexico, 1848–1849	Representative, Maine, 1839–1843	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1858–1881
	Alfred Conkling	Minister to Mexico, 1852–1853	Representative, New York, 1821–1823	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, 1825–1852
	J. Harry Covington	Member, Railway Wage Commission, 1918–1920	Representative, Maryland, 1909–1914	U.S. District Judge, Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, 1914–1918
	Mahlon Dickerson	Secretary of the Navy, 1834–1838	Senator, New Jersey, 1817–1833	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, 1840–1841
	Gabriel Duvall	First Comptroller of the Treasury, 1802–1811	Representative, Maryland, 1794–1796	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1811–1835
	Powhatan Ellis	Minister to Mexico, 1839–1842	Senator, Mississippi, 1825–1826; 1827–1832	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Mississippi, 1832–1836
	Walter Evans	Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1883–1885	Representative, Kentucky, 1895–1899	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Kentucky, 1899–1901 U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, 1901–1923
	George P. Fisher	United States Attorney, District of Columbia, 1870–1875 First Auditor of the Treasury Department, 1889–1893	Representative, Delaware, 1861–1863	U.S. District Judge, Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, 1863–1870
	Nathan Goff Jr.	United States Attorney, District of West Virginia, 1868–1881; 1881–1882 Secretary of the Navy, 1881	Representative, West Virginia, 1883–1889 Senator, West Virginia, 1913–1919	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1892–1913
	Nathan K. Hall	Postmaster General, 1850–1852	Representative, New York, 1847–1849	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, 1852–1874
	Guy T. Helvering	Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1933–1944	Representative, Kansas, 1913–1919	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, 1943–1946
	John J. Hickey	United States Attorney, District of Wyoming, 1949–1953	Senator, Wyoming, 1961–1962	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 1966–1970
	David M. Key	Postmaster General, 1877–1880	Senator, Tennessee, 1875–1877	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, 1880–1895
	Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar	Secretary of the Interior, 1885–1888	Representative, Mississippi, 1857–1860; 1873–1877 Senator, Mississippi, 1877–1885	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1888–1893
	John Laurance	Judge Advocate General, 1777–1782	Representative, New York, 1789–1793 Senator, New York, 1796–1800	U.S. District Court, U.S. District Court for the District of New York, 1794–1796
	Oscar Raymond Luhring	Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, 1925–1930	Representative, Indiana, 1919–1923	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 1930–1944
	George MacKinnon	United States Attorney, District of Minnesota, 1953–1958	Representative, Minnesota, 1947–1949	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit, 1969–1995
	John Marshall	Secretary of State, 1800–1801	Representative, Virginia, 1799–1800	Chief Justice of the United States, 1801–1835
	John Y. Mason	Attorney General, 1845–1846 Secretary of the Navy, 1844–1845; 1846–1849	Representative, Virginia, 1831–1837	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 1841–1844
	Stanley Matthews	United States Attorney, Southern District of Ohio, 1858–1861	Senator, Ohio, 1877–1881	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1881–1889
	George W. McCrary	Secretary of War, 1877–1879	Representative, Iowa, 1869–1877	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Circuit Court for the Eighth Circuit, 1879–1884
	James P. McGranery	Attorney General, 1952–1953	Representative, Pennsylvania, 1937–1943	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1946–1952
	Joseph McKenna	Attorney General, 1897–1898	Representative, California, 1885–1892	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1892–1897 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1898–1925
	Charles F. McLaughlin	Member, American-Mexican Claims Commission, 1943–1947 Member, Indian Claims Commission, 1947–1949	Representative, Nebraska, 1935–1943	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 1949–1964
	John McLean	Postmaster General, 1823–1829	Representative, Ohio, 1813–1816	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1829–1861
	George J. Mitchell	United States Attorney, District of Maine, 1977–1979	Senator, Maine, 1980–1995	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, 1979–1980
	William Henry Moody	United States Attorney, District of Massachusetts, 1890–1895 Attorney General, 1904–1906 Secretary of the Navy, 1902–1904	Representative, Massachusetts, 1895–1902	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1906–1910
	William W. Morrow	Special United States Attorney, French and American Claims Commission, 1881–1883 Special United States Attorney, Alabama Claims Commission, 1882–1885	Representative, California, 1885–1891	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, 1891–1897 U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1897–1923
	John Paul Jr.	United States Attorney, Western District of Virginia, 1929–1932	Representative, Virginia, 1922–1923	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, 1932–1964
	Ross Rizley	Solicitor of the Post Office Department, 1953 Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, 1953-1954 Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, 1955-1956	Representative, Oklahoma, 1941-1949	U.S. District Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, 1956-1969
	Thomas B. Robertson	Secretary of the Territory of Orleans, 1807–1812	Representative, Louisiana, 1812–1818	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 1824–1828
	Donald S. Russell	Assistant Secretary of State for Administration, 1945–1947	Senator, South Carolina, 1965–1966	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, 1966–1971 U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1971–1998
	Lewis B. Schwellenbach	Secretary of Labor, 1945–1948	Senator, Washington, 1934–1940	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, 1940–1945
	John Samuel Sherburne	United States Attorney, District of New Hampshire, 1789–1793; 1801–1804	Representative, New Hampshire, 1793–1797	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, 1804–1830
	Caleb Blood Smith	Secretary of the Interior, 1861–1862	Representative, Indiana, 1843–1849	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Indiana, 1862–1864
	Emory Speer	United States Attorney, Northern District of Georgia, 1883–1885	Representative, Georgia, 1878–1882	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, 1885–1918
	Fred M. Vinson	Director, Office of Economic Stabilization, 1943–1945 Secretary of the Treasury, 1945–1946	Representative from Kentucky, 1924–1929; 1931–1938	U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 1938–1943 Chief Justice of the United States, 1946–1953
	Edmund Waddill Jr.	United States Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia, 1883–1885	Representative, Virginia, 1890–1891	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 1898–1921 U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1921–1931
	William Wilkins	Secretary of War, 1844–1845	Senator, Pennsylvania, 1831–1834 Representative, Pennsylvania, 1843–1844	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1824–1831
	James Clifton Wilson	United States Attorney, Northern District of Texas, 1913–1917	Representative, Texas, 1917–1919	U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, 1919–1951
	Levi Woodbury	Secretary of the Navy, 1831–1834 Secretary of the Treasury, 1834–1841	Senator, New Hampshire, 1825–1831; 1841–1845	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1845–1851

Near misses

A number of people have come close to achieving this distinction, having held offices in two branches but having failed in an attempt to hold office in a third branch, or having held offices in two branches and worked for a third branch without holding a constitutional office in that branch:

Executive and legislative

• George W. Atkinson served as a U.S. Representative and was both a U.S. Marshal and U.S. Attorney for West Virginia before he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Claims, an Article I court falling under the Executive Branch, not the Judicial Branch.
• George Edmund Badger was a U.S. Senator from North Carolina and Secretary of the Navy. He was unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court by President Millard Fillmore in 1853.
• Ed Bryant served as a U.S. Representative and as a U.S. Attorney for Tennessee and was later appointed a United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
• John J. Crittenden was a U.S. Representative and Senator from Kentucky, and was twice U.S. Attorney General. He was unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court by President John Quincy Adams in 1828.
• Caleb Cushing was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and U.S. Attorney General. While he did serve as justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, his nomination for Chief Justice of the United States by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873 was withdrawn due to lack of support in Congress.
• Walter F. George served as a U.S. Senator from Georgia and later as a special ambassador to NATO. He was a judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia, state positions rather than a federal judgeship.
• Ebenezer R. Hoar served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and U.S. Attorney General. He was unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court by President Grant in 1869.
• John J. Jenkins was a territorial U.S. Attorney in Wyoming Territory and a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin. He served as a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, but the court had not yet become an Article III court in that period.
• John Marvin Jones served as a U.S. Representative from Texas and held various executive branch positions, ultimately being appointed to the U.S. Court of Claims, an Article I court falling under the Executive Branch, not the Judicial Branch.
• Levi Lincoln Sr. served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and as both U.S. Attorney General and acting Secretary of State. He was nominated to the Supreme Court by President James Madison in 1811, but declined.
• John Pettit was a U.S. Attorney and was both a U.S. Representative and Senator from Indiana. He served as a territorial judge in Kansas Territory, but never as an Article III judge.
• James E. Rogan was a U.S. Representative from California and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, a position in which he also held the title of Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by President George W. Bush in 2007, but was blocked by the Democratic-controlled Senate. He later served as Judge of the Superior Court of California, a state position rather than a federal judgeship.
• Jeff Sessions served as U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator from Alabama, an Assistant U.S. Attorney and as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. He was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, but his nomination was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• John Canfield Spencer served as a U.S. Representative from New York and as both Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury. He was twice unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court by President John Tyler in 1844.
• Horace Worth Vaughan was United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii and U.S. Representative from Texas. He was also a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, which at the time was an Article IV court.
• George Henry Williams was a U.S. Senator from Oregon and U.S. Attorney General. While he did serve as justice on the Oregon Territorial Supreme Court, his nomination for Chief Justice of the United States by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873 was withdrawn due to lack of support in Congress.

Executive and judicial

• Guy K. Bard was briefly a U.S. Attorney and later judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In 1952, he resigned from the bench to run for the U.S. Senate and won the nomination of his party, but lost the election.
• Walter Q. Gresham served as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Indiana and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and also as Postmaster General, Secretary of the Treasury, and Secretary of State, but his only legislative service was in the Indiana House of Representatives.
• William Lewis served as a U.S. Attorney for Pennsylvania and as judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Pennsylvania, but he was only elected to the Pennsylvania State Legislature.
• Nathaniel Pope was a Secretary of the Illinois Territory and a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Illinois. In between, he was a non-voting Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois Territory, not a constitutionally recognized member of the federal legislature.

Legislative and judicial

• Frank M. Coffin served as a U.S. Representative from Maine, and as a U.S. Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He held three executive branch positions—Managing Director of the Development Loan Fund, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and U.S. Representative to the OECD development assistance committee—but none of these were cabinet-level offices or required Senate confirmation.
• David Davis served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and as a U.S. Senator from Illinois, but he was never appointed to the executive branch although he served as Abraham Lincoln's 1860 campaign manager and later as an administrator of Lincoln's estate after the assassination.
• Edward C. Eicher served as a U.S. Representative from Iowa and Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Between holding these two positions, he was a member and chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an independent agencies of the U.S. government not under direct control of the President.
• Oliver Ellsworth served as one of Connecticut's first two U.S. senators and as Chief Justice of the United States. He was an unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States, receiving eleven votes in the electoral college in the U.S. presidential election of 1796. He also served as an Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of France, an unofficial position under the auspices of the executive branch.
• John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the United States, and he was also elected to serve as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and served as U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs and as U.S. Minister to Spain before the Constitution was adopted.
• Abner Mikva served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois and was a U.S. Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He served in the executive branch as White House Counsel, but this position does not require Senate confirmation.
• Sherman Minton served as a U.S. Senator from Indiana, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In between these offices, he was an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but held no official office in the Executive Branch.

See also

• List of people who have served in all three branches of a U.S. state government
• List of people who have held multiple United States Cabinet-level positions
• List of U.S. Supreme Court justices who also served in the U.S. Congress