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Fuller was born in Augusta, Maine in 1833. He descended from a line of judges. Both his maternal grandfather, Nathan Weston and paternal grandfather, Henry Weld Fuller were judges and his father was a well-known lawyer. His parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he was raised by his maternal grandfather Nathan Weston. Fuller attended college at Harvard University for one year before graduating from Bowdoin College. He then spent six months at Harvard Law School, but left in 1855 before graduating.
Fuller studied law under one of his uncles and in 1855, he went into partnership with another uncle. He also became the editor of The Age, a leading Democratic newspaper in Augusta, Maine. He moved to Chicago and in 1860, he managed Democrat Stephen Douglas' campaign for the Presidency of the United States. Fuller built a successful law practice in Chicago and argued cases before the United States Supreme Court, including the case of Tappan v. the Merchants' National Bank of Chicago, which was the first case heard by Chief Justice Morrison Waite, whom he would later replace.
Fuller had a minor career as a politician. He was elected to one term in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1863 to 1865, and was a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1862, and to the national Democratic Conventions of 1864, 1872, 1876, and 1880. In 1876, he made the nominating speech for Thomas Hendricks, an unsuccessful Democratic nomination for President who later served as Vice-President. After his inauguration as President, Grover Cleveland asked Fuller to serve as chairman of the United States Civil Service Commission, but Fuller declined. Cleveland then tried to persuade Fuller to accept appointment as Solicitor General of the United States, but once again Fuller again declined. In 1886, Fuller was president of the Illinois State Bar Association.
On April 30, 1888, President Cleveland nominated Fuller for the Chief Justice position on the Supreme Court following the death of Morrison Waite. Edward J. Phelps, a former ambassador to Great Britain was thought to be the front-runner for the nomination, but he declined because he thought that as a former Minister to England, his nomination might be looked on unfavorably by Irish-Americans, a major Democratic Party block of supporters.
Fuller's nomination was challenged in the Senate. He had avoided military service during the Civil War, and while serving in the Illinois House of Representatives had attempted to block wartime legislation proposed by Governor Richard Yates. Republicans tried to block Fuller's nomination, portraying him as a "Copperhead" (an anti-war Democrat). They publishing a pamphlet which read: "The records of the Illinois legislature of 1863 are black with Mr. Fuller's unworthy and unpatriotic conduct." In spite of this, Fuller was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 20, 1888, by a vote of 41 to 20. Nine Republicans voted to confirm him.
Fuller did not take the oath of office until October 8, 1888. On the bench, he presided over a court that delivered a number of important opinions. The most famous of these was Plessy v. Ferguson, delivered in 1896, which created the phrase "separate but equal" which was used to justify segregation in the South. (The actual phrase was "equal but separate".)
The Court under Fuller declared the income tax law unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 157 U.S. 429 and in Western Union Telegraph Company v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 128 U.S. 39, the Court ruled that states could not tax interstate telegraph messages. The court also weakened the effect of anti-trust legislation when in 1895, in the case of United States v. E. C. Knight Co., it held that the refining of sugar by a company within the boundaries of one state could not be held to be in restraint of interstate commerce under the terms of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, regardless of the product's final market . At the time E.C. Knight Company's owner, the American Sugar Refining Company, controlled more than 90% of sugar production.
In the case of Gonzales v. Williams 192 U.S. 1, 1904, the court held that under the immigration laws Puerto Ricans were not considered as aliens and therefore could not be denied entry into the United States. The Court did not go so far as to declare that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens. Fuller's opinion recognized that Puerto Rico was a territory of the US (as a result of the 1898 Spanish–American War), and therefore the plaintiff Gonzales had the right to remain in the US. This paved the way for future Puerto Ricans to freely immigrate to the US.
In 1893, Fuller turned down an offer from President-Elect Grover Cleveland, then about to commence his second non-consecutive term as president, to serve as Secretary of State in the new administration. Fuller servedon the Arbitration Commission in Paris in 1899 to resolve a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and Venezuela, in which former President Benjamin Harrison acted as counsel.
Fuller bore a close resemblance to author Mark Twain. According to an anecdote, Twain was once stopped on the street, mistaken for Fuller by a passerby who asked for the Chief Justice's autograph. Twain obliged the request, writing "It is delicious to be full, but it is heavenly to be Fuller. I am cordially yours, Melville W. Fuller."
As Chief Justice, he administered the oath of office to five Presidents (Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft).
Fuller died in Sorrento, Maine on the 4th of July in 1910. His legacy includes a record of voting against cases expanding the civil rights of African Americans (almost 85% of the time) and of Asian Americans (over 75% of the time.) Both percentages were above the average for the Supreme Court as a whole during his time on the court.