Melville Fuller

thumb| Melville Weston Fuller (February 11, 1833 – July 4, 1910) was an American politician, attorney, and jurist who served as the eighth chief justice of the United States from 1888 until his death in 1910. Quotes The Emancipation Proclamation is predicated upon the idea that the President may so annul the constitutions and laws of sovereign states, overthrow their domestic relations, deprive loyal men of their property, and disloyal as well, without trial or condemnation. Speech in 1863, reported in Willard L. King, Melville Weston Fuller: Chief Justice of the United States, 1888-1910 (New York: The Macmillan Co, 1950) p. 56 The framers of the Constitution employed words in their natural sense; and, where they are plain and clear, resort to collateral aids to interpretation is unnecessary, and cannot be indulged in to narrow or enlarge the text; but where there is ambiguity or doubt, or where two views may well be entertained, contemporaneous and subsequent practical construction is entitled to the greatest weight. McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1 (1892) Nothing can be clearer than that what the Constitution intended to guard against was the exercise by the general government of the power of directly taxing persons and property within any State through a majority made up from the other States. Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 157 U.S. 429 (1895). Essentially overturned by the Sixteenth Amendment in 1909 The power of the state to impose restraints and burdens upon persons and property in conservation and promotion of the public health, good order, and prosperity is a power originally and always belonging to the states, not surrendered to them by the general government, nor directly restrained by the constitution of the United States, and essentially exclusive. Sligh v. James Kirkwood, 237 U.S. 52 (1915) External links Category:1833 births Category:1910 deaths Category:Chief Justices of the United States Category:Democratic Party (United States) politicians Category:People from Maine Category:Lawyers from the United States