Viewing Douglas A. Hedin: "Chief Justice Jerome Fuller (1808-1880)."

Douglas A. Hedin: "Chief Justice Jerome Fuller (1808-1880)."

Jerome Fuller, a New York lawyer, Whig politician and newspaper editor, served as Chief Justice of Minnesota Territory from October 1851 through August 1852. During his term, he presided over sessions of the district court in Washington, Ramsey and Chisago Counties. He also presided over the second term of the Supreme Court in July 1852, writing four opinions and concurring in another. On July 26, 1852, the Court adopted rules of practice for itself, the district courts and the chancery court. These were the second set of rules adopted by the Court, replacing rules adopted in January 1850. Fuller died on September 2, 1880, in Brockport, New York, at age seventy-two.

This article is composed of a biographical sketch of Fuller, newspaper accounts of his district court sessions, including the trial of a case in which his predecessor Chief Justice Aaron Goodrich was a defendant, excerpts from three of his opinions, and most important, the Court's rules adopted in July 1852.

In December 2020 a portrait of Fuller was inserted. It was taken when he served as a delegate to the New York Constitutional Convention of 1867.

View Article