2020 has taken a lot from all of us. We have lost many institutions of the judiciary this year, with the passing of a collective two millennia of legal expertise. Below, we remember all the state supreme and federal judges who passed away in 2020. (Any exclusions are inadvertent, please feel free to add to the list through the comments).

U.S. Supreme Court

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Sept. 18) – U.S. Supreme Court, 1993-2020

U.S. Court of Appeals

Raymond Fisher (Feb. 29) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1999-2020

Jerome Farris (July 23) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1979-2020

Clyde Hamilton (Sept. 2) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1991-2020

Nathaniel R. Jones (Jan. 26) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1979-2002

Monroe McKay (Mar. 28) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 1977-2020

Lawrence Pierce (Feb. 5) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1981-1995

Thomas Reavley (Dec. 1) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1979-2020

Juan Torruella (Oct. 26) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 1984-2020

Stephen Williams (Aug. 7) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 1986-2020

Ralph Winter (Dec. 8) – U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1981-2020

U.S. District Courts

G. Ross Anderson (Dec. 1) – U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, 1980-2009

Deborah Batts (Feb. 3) – U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1994-2020

Dee Benson (Nov. 30) – U.S. District Court for the District of Utah 1991-2020

A. Richard Caputo (Mar. 11) – U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, 1997-2020

William Castagna (Dec. 18) – U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, 1979-2020

James Paul Churchill (June 29) – U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 1974-2020

John Davies (Mar. 24) – U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 1986-1998

Kevin Duffy (Apr. 1) – U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1972-2016

Patrick Duggan (Mar. 18) – U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 1986-2000

William Enright (Mar. 7) – U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, 1972-2020

Lloyd George (Oct. 7) – U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, 1984-2020

Walter Gex (Nov. 12) – U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, 1986-2020

Jackson Kiser (Oct. 21) – U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, 1981-2020

Blanche Manning (Sept. 20) – U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1994-2020

James Munley (Mar. 22) – U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, 1998-2020

Juan Perez-Jimenez (Dec. 10) – U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 1979-2020

Pamela Reeves (Sept. 10) – U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, 2014-2020

James Redden (Mar. 31) – U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, 1980-2020

Lowell Reed (Apr. 11) – U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1988-2020

Jack Shanstrom (Jan. 13) – U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, 1990-2020

Charles Alexander Shaw (Apr. 12) – U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, 1993-2020

George Curtis Smith (Apr. 15) – U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, 1987-2020

Laurie Smith Camp (Sept. 23) – U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, 2001-2020

William Sessions (June 12) – U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, 1974-1987

Arthur Spatt (June 12) – U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1989-2020

Stanley Sporkin (Mar. 23) – U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 1985-1999

Michael Telesca (Mar. 5) – U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, 1982-2020

Lee Roy West (Apr. 24) – U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, 1979-2020

Thomas Wiseman (Mar. 18) – U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, 1978-1995

State Supreme Courts

Shirley Abrahamson (Dec. 19) – Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1976-2019

Russell Anderson (Sept. 15) – Minnesota Supreme Court, 1998-2008

Edmond Burke (Mar. 31) – Alaska Supreme Court, 1975-1993

George Carley (Nov. 26) – Georgia Supreme Court, 1993-2012

Boyce Clayton (Mar. 15) – Kentucky Supreme Court, 1976-1982

Robert Erwin (Jan. 24) – Alaska Supreme Court, 1970-1977

Ralph Gants (Sept. 14) – Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2009-2020

Ernest Gibson (May 17) – Vermont Supreme Court, 1983-1997

Frank Gordon Jr. (Jan. 6) – Arizona Supreme Court, 1987-1992

Sandy Keith (Oct. 3) – Minnesota Supreme Court, 1990-1998

Robert Lavender (Mar. 23) – Oklahoma Supreme Court, 1965-2007

Charles Levin (Nov. 19) – Michigan Supreme Court, 1973-1996

Hans Linde (Aug. 31) – Oregon Supreme Court, 1977-1990

Lawrence Lindemer (May 21) – Michigan Supreme Court, 1975-1976

Richard Neely (Nov. 8) – West Virginia Supreme Court, 1973-1995

Lenore Prather (Apr. 11) – Mississippi Supreme Court, 1982-2000

Thomas Steffen (Sept. 1) – Nevada Supreme Court, 1982-1997

Other Notable Jurists

Gregory Carman (Mar. 5) – U.S. Court of International Trade, 1983-2014

Alfred Laureta (Nov. 16) – U.S. District Court for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, 1978-1988