Fuller, Melville

Fuller, Melville (Weston)

(born Feb. 11, 1833, Augusta, Me., U.S.—died July 4, 1910, Sorrento) U.S. jurist. After graduating from Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, he built a major legal practice in Chicago (from 1856), where he became prominent in Democratic Party politics. Although unknown nationally, he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1888 by Pres. Grover Cleveland; he would remain on the Court until his death. His colleagues included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and John Marshall Harlan. He wrote the Court's opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co., which declared a federal income tax unconstitutional. He also served on the Hague Court of International Arbitration (1900–10).