James Dunlop (judge)

James Dunlop (March 28, 1793 – May 6, 1872) was a United States federal judge.

Dunlop was born in Georgetown, which was then part of Maryland, but was ceded to the District of Columbia by the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801. He received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1811, and read law to enter the Bar. He became secretary for the municipal corporation of Georgetown and worked as an attorney until 1838, when he became a judge of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia.

On October 3, 1845, Dunlop received a recess appointment from President James K. Polk to a seat on the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia vacated by Buckner Thruston. Dunlop was formally nominated on December 23, 1845, and was confirmed by the United States Senate, and received his commission, on February 3, 1846. On November 27, 1855, Dunlop received a recess appointment from President Franklin Pierce elevating him to Chief Judge of the Circuit, the seat having been vacated by William Cranch. At the time, the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit was separately appointed by the President. Dunlop was formally nominated to the seat on December 3, 1855, and was confirmed by the Senate, and received his commission, on December 7, 1855.

On March 3, 1863, Congress abolished the D.C. Circuit, thus terminating Dunlop's service as a federal judge. He entered private practice in Georgetown until he died there in 1872.

Sources

• James Dunlop at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Further Reading

• James Dunlop, O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family (accessed Nov. 4, 2015) This person page networks the involvement of James Dunlop in the legal records and proceedings of the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia between 1800 and 1862.