Melville Fuller (February 11, 1833 – July 4, 1910) was the eighth chief justice of the United States. Born in Augusta, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College and practiced law in Chicago. In 1888, President Grover Cleveland appointed him to the Supreme Court. Fuller gained a reputation for collegiality and competent administrative skills. His jurisprudence was staunchly conservative: he favored free enterprise and opposed broad federal power. Fuller wrote the majority opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., which held that the federal income tax was unconstitutional. He joined the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld state-mandated racial segregation, and in Lochner v. New York, which struck down economic regulations on the grounds that they violated the freedom of contract. Many of his decisions were later overruled, and the majority of scholars have been critical of the Fuller Court's jurisprudence. He served as chief justice until his death in 1910.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melville_Fuller
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1584:
Spanish explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founded the town of Nombre de Jesús, the first of two short-lived colonies at the Strait of Magellan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_colonization_attempt_of_the_Strait_of_Magellan
1840:
La fille du régiment (audio featured), an opéra comique by Gaetano Donizetti, premiered in Paris to highly negative reviews but later became a success. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_fille_du_r%C3%A9giment
1919:
Friedrich Ebert was elected the provisional president of Germany by the Weimar National Assembly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Ebert
2008:
Rebel East Timorese soldiers invaded the homes of President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, seriously wounding the former. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_East_Timorese_assassination_attempts
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
radium: 1. The chemical element (symbol Ra) with an atomic number of 88. It is a soft, shiny and silvery radioactive alkaline earth metal. 2. (textiles, dated) A type of cloth woven from silk or synthetic yarn, often with a shiny appearance. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/radium
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most important step in getting a job done is the recognition of the problem. Once I recognize a problem I usually can think of someone who can work it out better than I could. --Leó Szilárd https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd
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