John Blair Jr.

John Blair Jr. (April 17, 1732 – August 31, 1800) was an American politician, Founding Father, and jurist, who signed the United States Constitution.

Blair was one of the best-trained jurists of his day. A famous legal scholar, he avoided the tumult of state politics, preferring to work behind the scenes. He was devoted to the idea of a permanent union of the newly independent states, and loyally supported fellow Virginians James Madison and George Washington at the Constitutional Convention. As a judge on the Virginia court of appeals and on the U.S. Supreme Court he influenced the interpretation of the Constitution in a number of important decisions. Contemporaries praised Blair for such personal strengths as gentleness and benevolence and for his ability to penetrate immediately to the heart of a legal question.