This is a chronological list of significant cases decided by the United States Supreme Court during the tenure of Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller (October 8, 1888 through July 4, 1910).
| Case name | Citation | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Kidd v. Pearson | 128 U.S. 1 (1888) | Scope of the Commerce Clause |
| Dent v. West Virginia | 129 U.S. 114 (1889) | state licensing of doctors |
| Botiller v. Dominguez | 130 U.S. 238 (1889) | validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants within the Mexican Cession |
| Davis v. Beason | 133 U.S. 333 (1890) | United States federal courts have jurisdiction to hear charges related to polygamy even though it be part of a religious belief |
| Hans v. Louisiana | 134 U.S. 1 (1890) | sovereign immunity of states, interpreting the Eleventh Amendment |
| Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota | 134 U.S. 418 (1890) | states and railway fees |
| In re Neagle | 135 U.S. 1 (1890) | authority of the U.S. Attorney General to appoint U.S. Marshals as bodyguards to Supreme Court Justices |
| LDS Church v. United States | 136 U.S. 1 (1890) | upheld revocation of LDS Church charter and confiscation of church property |
| In re Ross | 140 U.S. 453 (1891) | application of U.S. law to foreign sailors on U.S. flagged ships while in another country |
| Holy Trinity Church v. United States | 143 U.S. 457 (1892) | contracts with foreign citizens, religion |
| Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois | 146 U.S. 387 (1892) | railroad land dispute, public trust doctrine |
| Nix v. Hedden | 149 U.S. 304 (1893) | status of the tomato as fruit or vegetable under Tariff Act of 1883 |
| Schillinger v. United States | 155 U.S. 163 (1894) | sovereign immunity forbids suit against the Federal government for patent infringement |
| United States v. E. C. Knight Co. | 156 U.S. 1 (1895) | antitrust action; “Sugar Trust Case” |
| Sparf v. United States | 156 U.S. 51 (1895) | jury instructions |
| Coffin v. United States | 156 U.S. 432 (1895) | the presumption of innocence |
| In re Debs | 158 U.S. 564 (1895) | strikes and interstate commerce |
| Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. | 158 U.S. 601 (1895) | income tax and tariffs |
| Hilton v. Guyot | 159 U.S. 113 (1895) | doctrine of comity |
| Rosen v. United States | 161 U.S. 29 (1896) | defendant's ability to inspect evidence at obscenity trial overcame objection that indictment was too vague |
| Geer v. Connecticut | 161 U.S. 519 (1896) | states owned the wild animals within their borders and can strictly regulate their management and harvest |
| Talton v. Mayes | 163 U.S. 376 (1896) | individual rights in U.S. Constitution not applicable to tribal governments |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | 163 U.S. 537 (1896) | segregation; "separate but equal" |
| United States v. Ball | 163 U.S. 662 (1896) | double jeopardy |
| Allgeyer v. Louisiana | 165 U.S. 578 (1897) | Freedom of contract |
| United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association | 166 U.S. 290 (1897) | railroads and rate fixing |
| Interstate Commerce Commission v. Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway Co. | 167 U.S. 479 (1897) | powers of an administrative agency |
| Barrett v. United States | 169 U.S. 218 (1898) | South Carolina had not been subdivided into separate federal judicial districts |
| Holden v. Hardy | 169 U.S. 366 (1898) | working hours of miners |
| United States v. Wong Kim Ark | 169 U.S. 649 (1898) | citizenship and race |
| Hawker v. New York | 170 U.S. 189 (1898) | character and doctor’s licenses |
| Williams v. Mississippi | 170 U.S. 213 (1898) | literacy tests |
| Brown v. New Jersey | 175 U.S. 172 (1899) | use of a struck jury |
| Malony v. Adsit | 175 U.S. 281 (1899) | trial judge must authenticate bill of exceptions |
| Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education | 175 U.S. 528 (1899) | segregation in public schools |
| The Paquete Habana | 175 U.S. 677 (1900) | prize in admiralty law and customary international law |
| Marks v. Shoup | 181 U.S. 562 (1901) | Property issues |
| Insular Cases | ||
| DeLima v. Bidwell | 182 U.S. 1 (1901) | constitutional status of Puerto Rico and the Philippines |
| Goetze v. United States | 182 U.S. 221 (1901) | |
| Armstrong v. United States | 182 U.S. 243 (1901) | |
| Downes v. Bidwell | 182 U.S. 244 (1901) | |
| Huus v. New York & Porto Rico S.S. Co. | 182 U.S. 392 (1901) | |
| Dooley v. United States | 183 U.S. 151 (1901) | |
| Fourteen Diamond Rings v. United States | 183 U.S. 176 (1901) | |
| Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock | 187 U.S. 553 (1903) | power of Congress to abrogate treaties with Native American tribes |
| Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Company | 188 U.S. 239 (1903) | copyright protection of illustrations made for advertisements |
| Champion v. Ames | 188 U.S. 321 (1903) | Congressional Commerce Clause regulation of lottery tickets |
| Giles v. Harris | 189 U.S. 475 (1903) | voting rights, Eleventh Amendment |
| Hawaii v. Manikichi | 190 U.S. 197 (1903) | sometimes considered one of the Insular Cases |
| Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railway Company of Texas v. Clay May | 194 U.S. 267 (1904) | 14th Amendment permits law which penalizes railroads for allowing weeds to grow |
| Kepner v. United States | 195 U.S. 100 (1904) | sometimes considered one of the Insular Cases |
| Dorr v. United States | 195 U.S. 138 (1904) | sometimes considered one of the Insular Cases |
| Gonzales v. Williams | 192 U.S. 1 (1904) | Puerto Ricans and illegal aliens |
| Northern Securities Co. v. United States | 193 U.S. 197 (1904) | Antitrust, application of the Sherman Antitrust Act |
| Swift & Co. v. United States | 196 U.S. 375 (1905) | Commerce Clause, to regulate monopolies |
| Rasmussen v. United States | 197 U.S. 516 (1905) | sometimes considered one of the Insular Cases |
| Lochner v. New York | 198 U.S. 45 (1905) | freedom of contract, substantive due process |
| Harris v. Balk | 198 U.S. 215 (1905) | quasi in rem jurisdiction |
| Chicago Board of Trade v. Christie Grain | 198 U.S. 236 (1905) | upholding power of Chicago Board of Trade to regulate futures contracts |
| Hale v. Henkel | 201 U.S. 43 (1906) | witness testimony in antitrust cases |
| Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. v. Riggs | 203 U.S. 243 (1906) | upheld power of states to regulate insurance contracts against Fourteenth Amendment challenge |
| United States v. Shipp | 203 U.S. 563 (1906) | Only criminal trial in the court's history. Lynching. |
| Adair v. United States | 208 U.S. 161 (1908) | "Yellow Dog contract" |
| Loewe v. Lawlor | 208 U.S. 274 (1908) | Sherman Antitrust Act applied against labor union boycott |
| Muller v. Oregon | 208 U.S. 412 (1908) | protective labor laws, protection of women |
| White-Smith Music Publishing Company v. Apollo Company | 209 U.S. 1 (1908) | manufacturers of player pianos need not pay royalties to copyright holders of music |
| Ex parte Young | 209 U.S. 123 (1908) | exception to sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment |
| Ware & Leland v. Mobile County | 209 U.S. 405 (1908) | contracts for the sales of cotton for future delivery that do not oblige interstate shipments are not subjects of interstate commerce, and are taxable by states |
| Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus | 210 U.S. 339 (1908) | First-sale doctrine, copyright holder cannot control resale prices by use of licenses |
| Londoner v. City and County of Denver | 210 U.S. 373 (1908) | role of due process in administrative rulemaking |
| Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co. | 210 U.S. 405 (1908) | patent and antitrust |
| Berea College v. Kentucky | 211 U.S. 45 (1908) | state laws and segregation of educational facilities |
| Twining v. New Jersey | 211 U.S. 78 (1908) | Fifth Amendment does not apply to state trials |
| Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Mottley | 211 U.S. 149 (1908) | federal question jurisdiction, the "well-pleaded complaint rule" |
| Bailey v. Alabama | 211 U.S. 452 (1908) | peonage laws and the Thirteenth Amendment |
| Moyer v. Peabody | 212 U.S. 78 (1909) | citizens' rights during insurrection |
| Welch v. Swasey | 214 U.S. 91 (1909) | Massachusetts' statute restricting building heights is constitutional |
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find them infected with this dropsy and elephantiasis, which we ought to have tapped.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Why doesn’t the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Nullification ... means insurrection and war; and the other states have a right to put it down.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
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“World history is a court of judgment.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The world men inhabit ... is rather bleak. It is a world full of doubt and confusion, where vulnerability must be hidden, not shared; where competition, not co-operation, is the order of the day; where men sacrifice the possibility of knowing their own children and sharing in their upbringing, for the sake of a job they may have chosen by chance, which may not suit them and which in many cases dominates their lives to the exclusion of much else.”
—Anna Ford (b. 1943)
“Light, God’s eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building.”
—Thomas Fuller (1608–1661)