After graduating he returned to Newark, and read law by clerking for S. D. King, a prominent local lawyer. Woods was admitted to the bar in 1847. He entered the firm of his mentor, King, and became his partner. He practiced law with King in Newark, from 1847 to 1862. Woods, a loyal Democrat, was elected Mayor of Newark in 1856. He was next elected to the Ohio General Assembly in 1858, and was selected soon after as Speaker of the House. He also served as Minority Leader.
He decided to settle in the South, living for a year in Mobile, Alabama, where he reopened a law practice. He moved to the state capital of before moving to Montgomery, to continue his practice of law. There he bought property and cultivated cotton, hiring free African-American workers, likely as sharecroppers. He served as a Chancellor, Middle Chancery Division of Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama from 1868 to 1869.
Federal judicial service
Circuit Court service
Woods was appointed as a United States Circuit Judge for the United States Circuit Courts for the Fifth Circuit. Woods was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant on December 8, 1869, to a new seat, created by 16 Stat. 44. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 22, 1869, and received commission the same day. He was appointed to the United States Supreme Court, and resigned from the circuit court on December 23, 1880. The Slaughter-House Cases, which "tested the issue of the reach and breadth of the 14th Amendment", were the most important cases that Woods adjudicated in the lower courts. He found that a state act that created a monopoly in the slaughterhouse business violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the new 14th Amendment and "therefore was void". Three years later, a majority of the Supreme Court reversed his decision in the Slaughter-House Cases. At this point, Woods had a broad interpretation of the provisions of the 14th Amendment.
Supreme Court service
Woods was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes on December 15, 1880 to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to a seat vacated by William Strong. He was confirmed by the United States Senate, by a vote of 39 to 8, on December 21, 1880, and received commission the same day. He took the oath of office on January 5, 1881. Woods was the first person to be named to the Supreme Court from a former Confederate state since 1853. But he was known as a Northerner, Union veteran, and Republican Party member, so was acceptable to the U.S. Senate's Republican majority. Woods is not considered to have been a major contributor to the Court. He served six years on the bench, until his death in Washington, D.C. on May 14, 1887.
