The Elusive Trifecta

No one has ever held a Constitutionally-defined post in each of the three branches of the United States Government. I consider those offices to be President, Vice-President, Senator, Congressman, and Supreme Court Justice. No one has ever held one in each Branch, and nor, obviously, has anyone ever held all five.

I began to notice this fact a few years ago, just scanning over the lists of Presidents and Vice-Presidents in my mind. I just now confirmed it by checking all Supreme Court Justices through history: none of them have been both a Member of Congress and either President or Vice-President (indeed, none of them has been Vice-President at all!). Only William Howard Taft was both Chief Justice and President of the United States, and he was never in Congress.
Quite a few men (they are all men), however, have held offices in each of the three branches, just not Constitutionally-defined ones in the Executive. Specifically:

John Marshall was a Representative from Virginia, Secretary of State, and Chief Justice.
Levi Woodbury was Senator from New Hampshire, Governor of New Hampshire, Secretary of the Treasury, and Associate Justice.
Nathan Clifford was a Representative from Maine, Attorney General, and Associate Justice.
Salmon Chase was Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice.
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II (I kid you not) was Senator and Representative from Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior, and Associate Justice.
Joseph McKenna was a Representative from California, Attorney General, and Associate Justice.
William Moody was a Representative from Massachusetts, Attorney General, and Associate Justice.
James Byrnes was a Senator and Representative from South Carolina, Secretary of State, and Associate Justice.
Fred Vinson was a Representative from Kentucky, Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice.

Wikipedia refers to all of these men as having held offices in each branch of the government, and in a sense they have. But the fact remains that no one has ever held an actual Constitutional office in each branch. Other tidbits relating to inter-departmental careers:

Charles Evans Hughes was Associate Justice, resigned to run for President, nearly beat Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was later appointed Chief Justice. I think he had the only discontinuous tenure on the Court.
John Marshall was simultaneously Secretary of State and Chief Justice, and it was his own actions as Secretary of State that were involved in Marbury v. Madison.
John McKinley, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, George Sutherland, and James Byrnes have held three of the five Constitutional offices including being a Justice, i.e. Justice, Congressman, and Senator.
Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush held three of the five Constitutional offices not including being a Justice, including both President and Vice-President.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were both President, Vice-President, and members of the Continental Congress, which doesn't really count.
John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Harrison, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, John Kennedy, John Calhoun, William R. King, John Breckinridge, Hannibal Hamlin, Thomas Hendricks, Charles Curtis, Alben Barkley, Dan Quayle, and Al Gore have held three of the five Constitutional offices, including service in both Houses of Congress and as either President or Vice-President.
John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon have held all four Constitutional elected offices: Representative, Senator, Vice-President, and President. Funny how disliked all four of the members of this elite club are, eh? Two impeached or forced to resign under threat of impeachment, and two run out of office by their own party.

The person who may have come closest to holding a Constitutional office in all three branches was David Davis. Lincoln appointed him to the Court in 1862, and he served until 1877. But then came the disputed election of 1876, in which the electoral votes of South Carolina, Louisiana, and, yes, Florida were claimed by both sides. A commission was formed to investigate, to be composed of five Senators, five Congressmen, and five Justices. It was also supposed to be evenly balanced in terms of parties: seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and Justice Davis, the most respected Independent in the nation. But then! Illinois Democrats elected Davis Senator! They thought they had bribed his vote, but instead he resigned as Justice immediately, which got Justice Bradley onto the commission instead and he awarded the electors to Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican. Later, President James Garfield was assassinated, leaving Chester A. Arthur as President and the Vice-Presidency vacant. According to the rules prevailing at the time, the President Pro Tempore was next in line... but the Senate was evenly divided, and neither party could get their man into the coveted line of succession. So they chose Senator Davis, a first-term Senator (who sought no further terms), to be President Pro Tem. If Chester A. Arthur had died, or resigned, then David Davis would have been Justice, Senator, and President.

Anyway, Barack Obama should totally get on the Court after he's done being President, just to claim this elusive prize.