Benjamin Mills was a lawyer and judge who served in the Kentucky Circuit Courts and the Kentucky Court of Appeals. He also represented Bourbon County, Kentucky, in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Mills issued a significant ruling in the 1820 case of Rankin v. Lydia which dealt with the rights of slaves brought to the Northwest Territory, where slavery was illegal. Mills' opinion in Rankin established a precedent that was cited in U.S. courts until the abolition of slavery following the Civil War.