Chief Justice Melville Fuller
Today’s Justice of the Day is: MELVILLE FULLER. Chief Justice Fuller was born on this day, February 11, in 1833.
Chief Justice Fuller was born in Augusta, Maine, the state’s capital. He attended Bowdoin College, located not far from Maine’s largest city, Portland, and went on to earn an A.B. in 1853, and then an A.M. in 1856.
Chief Justice Fuller worked in private practice in Augusta and was Editor of the Augusta Age (a leading Democratic newspaper) during the year before he received his A.M. In 1856, in addition to completing his second and final degree, he also served as President of the August Common Council and was City Solicitor of Augusta. Later that year, Chief Justice Fuller moved to Chicago, Illinois, the state from which he would be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, to embark on an illustrious career in private practice that would continue until his appointment to the SCUS. His time there also saw the start of his involvement in government, as he managed Illinois Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas’ 1860 Presidential campaign against former United States Representative (and eventual winner) Abraham Lincoln, and served as both a Delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1862 and a Member of the Illinois House of Representatives (from 1863 to 1865).
Chief Justice Fuller was nominated by President Grover Cleveland on April 30, 1888, to a seat vacated by Chief Justice Morrison Waite. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 20, and received his commission that day. Chief Justice Fuller took the Judicial Oath to officially join the SCUS on October 8, and his service was terminated on July 4, 1910, due to his death.
Chief Justice Fuller is perhaps most well-remembered as one of the most conservative Members to ever serve on the SCUS. He was not only an archconservative on issues of civil rights and race, as seen in his vote for the odious opinion of the Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), where the majority held that government policies codifying institutionalized racial segregation did not violate the Constitution so long as they claimed to treat all races “equally,” but was also an unyielding defender of private business, as seen in his decision to vote with Justice Rufus Wheeler Peckham’s opinion of the Court in Lochner v. New York (1905), where the majority found a supposed “freedom of contract” which they claimed prevented the government from regulating how many hours employers could demand of their employees. Chief Justice Fuller was also a famously amiable person, and is credited with inaugurating the SCUS’s tradition of having all of the Justices shakes hands with one another before entering their private conferences. He closely resembled the famous author and humorist Mark Twain, who would supposedly humor passersby who mistook him for the Chief Justice and asked for an autograph by writing: “It is delicious to be full, but divine to be Fuller. I am cordially yours, Melville W. Fuller”.