Melville Fuller

Melville Weston Fuller lived from February 11, 1833 to July 4, 1910 and was an American politician, attorney and jurist who served as the eighth chief justice of the United States from 1888 until his death. His tenure was marked by staunch conservatism, a tendency to support unfettered free enterprise, and opposition to broad federal power, with major opinions on the federal income tax, the Commerce Clause and citizenship law. Born in Augusta, Maine, he established a legal practice in Chicago after graduating from Bowdoin College, campaigned for Stephen A. Douglas, served a term in the Illinois House of Representatives, and became a prominent Chicago attorney and Democratic delegate before President Grover Cleveland nominated him to succeed Morrison Waite as chief justice in 1888. His majority opinion in Pollock v. Farmers Loan and Trust Co. struck down a federal income tax as unconstitutional, later superseded by the Sixteenth Amendment, and his opinion in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. narrowly limited Congress power under the Commerce Clause. In Lochner v. New York he joined the majority striking down wage-and-hour regulation, and he joined the majority in Plessy v. Ferguson upholding separate but equal, though he dissented when the Court upheld birthright citizenship in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Many of his rulings did not stand the test of time, and his historical reputation has been generally unfavorable.