ABSTRACT
Melville W. Fuller was chief justice of the US Supreme Court from 1888 to his death in 1910, a twenty-two-year period that spanned a pivotal era in American history. The Supreme Court during Fuller's tenure grappled with novel issues arising from rapid industrialization, the emergence of large-scale business enterprise and a national market, and the acquisition of overseas territories. The core values of Fuller's jurisprudence, derived from the political tradition of Andrew Jackson, were a commitment to limited government, state autonomy, private property, and individual liberty. Fuller was a skillful social leader of the Court rather than a dominant intellectual force. He was an excellent judicial administrator, who expedited the Court's handling of cases and helped secure passage of the Evarts Act in 1891 to establish federal circuit courts of appeals. Much of the jurisprudence of the Fuller Court was eclipsed by the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the constitutional revolution of 1937.
