McReynolds, James Clark (b. Elkton, Ky., 3 Feb. 1862; d. Washington, D.C., 24 Aug., 1946; interred Elkton Cemetery), associate justice, 1914–1941. The son of a noted surgeon, McReynolds attended Vanderbilt University, where he graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1882. Although his early intellectual leanings were toward the natural sciences, McReynolds developed keen interests in both law and politics, which led him to study law at the University of Virginia. At Virginia, McReynolds was greatly influenced by Professor John B. Minor, a man of stern morality and firm conservative convictions. McReynolds graduated from the law department at Virginia in 1884.
After a brief stint as personal secretary to United States Senator (and later Supreme Court Justice) Howell E.
Jackson, McReynolds established a law practice in Nashville. Within a very few years, McReynolds achieved notoriety as a lawyer, especially as an adviser to business interests. In 1900 he was appointed professor of commercial law, insurance, and corporations at Vanderbilt University.
McReynolds's first foray into public life came in 1886 when he mounted an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in Congress, running as a “Gold Democrat” with substantial Republican support. Despite his affiliation with the Democratic party, McReynolds was appointed assistant attorney general in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Four years later McReynolds left the Department of Justice and associated with a prestigious law firm in New York City. In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson made McReynolds his attorney general. The following year Wilson nominated him to succeed Supreme Court Justice Horace
Lurton.
As a Supreme Court justice, McReynolds was a staunch conservative whose participation in numerous constitutional decisions had a profound effect on both law and public policy, especially in relation to the
First Amendment, the civil rights of minorities, and the rights of the accused. Above all, McReynolds opposed the growing social and economic regulatory power of government and believed that the Constitution fairly committed the nation to a policy of laissez‐faire capitalism (see
Laissez‐Faire Constitutionalism).
McReynolds is probably best remembered as one of the Four Horsemen (along with Justices George
Sutherland, Willis
Van Devanter, and Pierce
Butler), so called because they consistently voted as a bloc against
New Deal legislation such as the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (*
Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States, 1935), the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (United States v. *
Butler, 1936), and the Bituminous Coal Act of 1935 (
Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 1936).
Prior to 1937 the Four Horsemen were joined in their opposition to New Deal legislation by moderate members of the Court. Suddenly, in 1937, the moderates (Chief Justice Charles Evans
Hughes and Justice Owen
Roberts) shifted their positions and joined the liberals on the Court (Justices Louis
Brandeis, Benjamin
Cardozo, and Harlan F.
Stone) to create a pro–New Deal majority. After this “constitutional revolution” and until his retirement in 1941, McReynolds became a dissenting voice on the Court, protesting what he considered to be unconstitutional exercises of power by the federal government. For example, in
Steward Machine Co. v. Davis (1937), McReynolds dissented from a decision of the Court upholding the Social Security Act, saying, “I can not find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States” (p. 603).
As a person, McReynolds was often rude, impatient, and sarcastic. He detested tobacco and prohibited others from smoking in his presence. His attitudes toward women, especially female attorneys, were likewise intolerant. Perhaps one of his least endearing characteristics was his thoroughgoing anti‐Semitism, which prevented him from being civil to his Jewish brethren Brandeis and Cardozo. Yet McReynolds was known to be kind to the pages who worked at the Court and was especially sympathetic to children. Perhaps nothing illustrated McReynolds's charity toward children as much as his generous support of thirty‐three young victims of the German bombardment of England in 1941.
Despite his love of children, McReynolds remained a lifelong bachelor. After his retirement in 1941, he continued to live in Washington until he died of pneumonia. He left his entire estate to charity.
See also
History of the Court: The Depression and the Rise of Legal Liberalism.
John M. Scheb II
