In 1858, President Buchanan appointed Hall as chief justice of the Nebraska Territory, which then encompassed a vast area west of the Missouri River (to the western edge of the Louisiana Purchase) and north of Kansas Territory (to the Canada–US border). Upon his appointment he immediately moved to Bellevue, Nebraska. He was Chief Justice until his death in Bellevue on February 1, 1861. He was interred in Prospect Hill Cemetery in North Omaha.
