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The Fuller Court

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SCOTUS
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Cases by term
Judgeships
Posts: 9
Judges: 9
Judges
Chief: John Roberts
Active: Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas



The Fuller Court lasted from July 1888 to July 1910, during the presidencies of Grover Cleveland (D), Benjamin Harrison (R), William McKinley (R), Theodore Roosevelt (R), and William Howard Taft (R).

Melville Weston Fuller was nominated as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Grover Cleveland on April 30, 1888. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 20, 1888, and was commissioned on the same day. Fuller was the eighth Chief Justice in the history of the Supreme Court. His judicial service ended on July 4, 1910, upon his death.[1][2][3]

Fuller established the court tradition that each justice shake hands with every other justice on the court prior to beginning their conference. A conference is a private meeting of the justices.[3]

About Chief Justice Melville Fuller

Early life and education

  • Read law
  • Bowdoin College, A.B., 1853
  • Bowdoin College, A.M., 1856[1]

Professional career

  • 1856-1888: Private practice, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1863-1865: Illinois state representative
  • 1862: Delegate, Illinois Constitutional Convention
  • 1855-1856: Private practice, Augusta, Maine
  • 1855-1856: Editor, Augusta Age
  • 1856: President, Common Council of Augusta, Maine
  • 1856: City solicitor, Augusta, Maine[1]


Associate justices

The justices in the following table served on the Fuller Court.

Tenure Justice Nominated By
1862-1890 Samuel Freeman Miller Abraham Lincoln
1863-1897 Stephen Johnson Field Abraham Lincoln
1870-1892 Joseph Bradley Ulysses Grant
1877-1889 John Harlan I Rutherford B. Hayes
1881-1889 Stanley Matthews James Garfield
1882-1893 Samuel Blatchford Chester Arthur
1882-1902 Horace Gray Chester Arthur
1888-1893 Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar Grover Cleveland
1890-1910 David Josiah Brewer Benjamin Harrison
1891-1906 Henry Billings Brown (U.S. Supreme Court) Benjamin Harrison
1892-1903 George Shiras Benjamin Harrison
1893-1895 Howell Edmunds Jackson Benjamin Harrison
1896-1909 Rufus Wheeler Peckham Grover Cleveland
1898-1925 Joseph McKenna William McKinley
1902-1932 Oliver Wendell Holmes Theodore Roosevelt
1903-1922 William Rufus Day Theodore Roosevelt
1906-1910 William Henry Moody Theodore Roosevelt
1910-1914 Horace Harmon Lurton William Howard Taft

Major cases

Caldwell v. Texas (1891)

“ No state can deprive particular persons or classes of persons of equal and impartial justice under the law without violating the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.


Due process of law, within the meaning of the Constitution, is secured when the laws operate on all alike, and no one is subjected to partial or arbitrary exercise of the powers of government.

No question of repugnancy to the federal Constitution can be fairly said to arise when the inquiry of a state court is directed to the sufficiency of an indictment in the ordinary administration of criminal law, and the statutes authorizing the form of indictment do not obviously violate these fundamental principles.

An indictment, framed in accordance with the laws of Texas, which charges that the prisoner at a time and place named did, "unlawfully and with express malice aforethought, kill one J. M. Shamblin by shooting him with a gun, contrary to the form of the statute" etc., does no violation to the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.[4]

”
—U.S. Supreme Court[5]

Polluck v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895)

The question presented asked the court to examine the Income Tax Act of 1894 and whether the national income tax violated the Constitution. The court ruled that the Act was unconstitutional as direct taxation not apportioned among the states. The decision was negated in 1913 upon the adoption of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913.[6]

United States v. E.C. Knight Co.: Details
Author: Melville Fuller

Vote Count: 8-1

Majority Justices: Field, Gray, Brewer, Brown, Shiras, Jr., Jackson, White

Dissenting Justice: Harlan

United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895)

In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, outlawing monopolies in transportation, industry, and commerce. The question before the court was if this Act was unconstitutional because of the Commerce Clause. The court determined that although it was constitutional, the law did not apply to manufacturing. In the specific case of the E.C. Knight Company, the monopoly was a result of interstate commerce and, therefore, was not affected by the trust.[7]







Plessy v. Ferguson: Details
Author: Henry B. Brown

Vote Count: 7-1

Majority Justices: Brown, Fuller, Field, Gray, Peckham, Shiras, White

Minority Justice: Brewer

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

In 1892, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which segregated carrier cars by race. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a man considered Black under Louisiana law, sat in a whites only car, in order to challenge the law.[8] The court held that the state law was constitutional, and that segregation did not constitute unlawful discrimination.[9]







Lochner v. New York: Details
Author: Rufus Wheeler Peckham

Vote Count: 5-4

Majority Justices: Peckham, Brewer, McKenna, Brown, Fuller

Minority Justices: Harlan I, White, Day, Holmes

Lochner v. New York (1905)

In 1897, New York passed the Bakeshop Act, which said: “no employee shall be ... permitted to work in a biscuit, bread, or cake bakery or confectionery establishment more than sixty hours in any one week.” When the owner of Lochner’s Home Bakery, Joseph Lochner, was fined $50.00 and sentenced to jail time of fifty days until he paid the fine for allowing an employee to work over sixty hours, he appealed to the New York Court of Appeals. On April 17, 1905, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling stating that freedom to contract was protected by the Fourteenth Amendment's substantive due process clause. This decision found that it was unconstitutional for the state to dictate a maximum number of hours one could labor per week.[10]

About the court

See also: Supreme Court of the United States


The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the country and leads the judicial branch of the federal government. It is often referred to by the acronym SCOTUS.[11]

The Supreme Court consists of nine justices: the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices. The justices are nominated by the president and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the United States Senate per Article II of the United States Constitution. As federal judges, the justices serve during "good behavior," which means that justices have tenure for life unless they are removed by impeachment and subsequent conviction.[12]

The Supreme Court is the only court established by the United States Constitution (in Article III); all other federal courts are created by Congress.

The Supreme Court meets in Washington, D.C., in the United States Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court's yearly term begins on the first Monday in October and lasts until the first Monday in October the following year. The court generally releases the majority of its decisions in mid-June.[12]

Number of seats on the Supreme Court over time

See also: History of the Supreme Court
Number of Justices Set by Change
Chief Justice + 5 Associate Justices Judiciary Act of 1789
Chief Justice + 4 Associate Justices Judiciary Act of 1801 (later repealed)
-1
Chief Justice + 6 Associate Justices Seventh Circuit Act of 1807
+2
Chief Justice + 8 Associate Justices Eighth and Ninth Circuits Act of 1837
+2
Chief Justice + 9 Associate Justices Tenth Circuit Act of 1863
+1
Chief Justice + 6 Associate Justices Judicial Circuits Act of 1866
-3
Chief Justice + 8 Associate Justices Judiciary Act of 1869
+2


See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Federal Judicial Center, "Fuller, Melville Weston," accessed March 10, 2022
  2. ↑ Supreme Court Historical Society, "Melville Weston Fuller, 1888-1910," accessed March 10, 2022
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Oyez, "Melville W. Fuller," accessed March 10, 2022
  4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ Justia, Caldwell v. Texas, decided January 12, 1891
  6. ↑ Oyez, "Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company," accessed March 10, 2022
  7. ↑ Oyez, United States v. E.C. Knight Co.
  8. ↑ PBS, Landmark Cases: Plessy v. Ferguson, accessed December 20, 2013
  9. ↑ Oyez, Plessy v. Ferguson
  10. ↑ PBS, Landmark Cases: Lochner v. New York
  11. ↑ The New York Times, "On Language' Potus and Flotus," October 12, 1997
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 SupremeCourt.gov, "A Brief Overview of the Supreme Court," accessed April 20, 2015
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