Fuller, Melville Weston (1833-1910), served as chief justice of the United States from 1888 to 1910. He was a capable Supreme Court administrator. But he clung to the doctrine of states’ rights, which aimed at protecting the rights and powers of the states against those of the federal government, in a time of problems that required increasing federal regulation. Fuller’s best-known decisions declared the national income tax unconstitutional, and, by interpretation, weakened the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, which outlawed any contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade (see Antitrust laws ).
Fuller was born in Augusta, Maine, on Feb. 11, 1833. He graduated from Bowdoin College and studied law at Harvard Law School. He was a Chicago corporation lawyer from 1856 to 1888. He served as a member of the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1862, and later was a member of the Illinois legislature. From 1900 to 1910, Fuller served as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which handled legal disputes between nations. He died on July 4, 1910.
