[1] Following the State of Wisconsin's admission to the Union on May 28, 1848, Miller was nominated by President James K. Polk on June 12, 1848, to the United States District Court for the District of Wisconsin, to a new seat authorized by 9 Stat.

He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 12, 1848, and received his commission the same day.

During the difficult pre-American Civil War era, Miller upheld the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and federal jurisdiction in the Sherman Booth and John Rycraft cases (1854–1855).

[2] Miller was descended from Irish American immigrants who settled in the Province of Pennsylvania in the colonial era.

Her brother was Benjamin Kurtz, who helped to establish the Lutheran church in America.