James C. McReynolds

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James C. McReynolds (about 1924)

James Clark McReynolds (born February 3, 1862 in Elkton , Todd County , Kentucky , † August 24, 1946 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer, politician, attorney general and judge at the United States Supreme Court .

Studies and professional career

McReynolds, son of a surgeon, first completed a general education course at Vanderbilt University in Nashville , which he completed in 1882 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) . He then studied law at the Law School of the University of Virginia , where he graduated in 1884 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.).

He was then secretary to US Senator Howell Edmunds Jackson from Tennessee . In 1886 he worked as a lawyer in Nashville before he was professor of commercial law , insurance law and corporate law at the Law School of Vanderbilt University from 1900 to 1903 . In 1907 he began practicing law in New York City .

Political career

Attorney General under President Wilson

McReynolds began his political career in 1896 with an unsuccessful candidacy for the US House of Representatives . He stood up for the Republicans and was clearly defeated by the Democrat John W. Gaines .

In 1903 he was appointed Assistant Attorney General in the government of Theodore Roosevelt . He held this office until 1907. He was then chief advisor to the government from 1907 to 1912, and during this time accused in particular opponents of the Sherman Antitrust Act .

On March 5, 1913, he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson as Attorney General in his cabinet . However, he only held this office until August 29, 1914.

Supreme Court Justice

A few weeks later President Wilson appointed him on October 12th as a judge of the Supreme Court , where he succeeded Horace Harmon Lurton, who died on July 12, 1914 . On January 31, 1941, McReynolds, who had previously stated that he would remain a judge as long as Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, resigned from his position as judge in the Supreme Court. He was succeeded by James F. Byrnes , US Senator from South Carolina .

Important decisions

US Supreme Court Judges (1925): (front from left) James Clark McReynolds, Oliver Wendell Holmes , William Howard Taft, Willis Van Devanter, Louis Brandeis, (rear from left) Edward Sanford , George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, Harlan Fiske Stone

During his tenure, he was known for his tight decisions and for viewing dissenting opinions as a waste of time. In the first few years he was the author of the decisions of Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), who protected and strengthened civil rights by referring to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution . Much later, these decisions were used to strengthen decisions on constitutional right to privacy ( Griswold v. Connecticut , 1965) and later on abortion law ( Roe v. Wade , 1973).

During the first term of President Roosevelt was one he beside George Sutherland , Pierce Butler and Willis Van Devanter the conservative so-called wing of the judges, Four Horsemen ( Four Horsemen of). This wing, and McReynolds in particular, who despised the president, made decisions that strongly criticized Roosevelt's New Deal programs .

As a judge, McReynolds voted against the Tennessee Valley Authority , the National Industrial Recovery Act, and the Social Security Act , all of which were part of Roosevelt's New Deal. Even after the death of the other conservative judges, he was the last remaining member of the four riders to vote against the president's policy.

In 1939 he was also the author of the contested decision United States v. Miller, which was the only Supreme Court decision that made direct reference to the 2nd Amendment .

Behavior towards other judges, anti-Semitism and fictional character

In addition to his dislike of President Roosevelt, he was considered by many to be one of the most uncomfortable judges in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice William Howard Taft already described him as selfish, biased and irresponsible. He was also known for his open anti-Semitism .

He did not exchange a word with Louis Brandeis , who became the first Jewish judge on the Supreme Court in 1916 , until 1919, left the boardroom when Brandeis entered and even when Brandeis resigned in 1939 he did not sign the usual letter of appreciation. In 1924, he refused to sit next to Brandeis in a Supreme Court group photo.

Before Benjamin N. Cardozo's appointment as judge, he asked President Herbert C. Hoover, along with Judges Butler and Van Devanter, in 1932 not to "plague the Supreme Court with a second Jew." During the swearing-in ceremony, he demonstratively read a daily newspaper. According to the information provided by his biographer John Frush Knox, who was his court assistant from 1936 to 1937, he did not exchange a word with Cardozo. He even stayed away from the funeral service for Cardozo, who died in 1938, as well as the swearing-in of Cardozo's Jewish successor Felix Frankfurter .

It is rumored that McReynolds' manner was also the reason for the resignation of Judge John Hessin Clarke after only six years in office. In addition, he was known to be misogynistic and even left his judge's seat when lawyers appeared. On the other hand, the bachelor left a considerable fortune to charitable organizations and sponsored 33 children who were victims of the German air raid on London in 1940 .

More recently, he was a fictional character in the Timeline 191 series by Harry Turtledove .

Web links

Commons : James Clark McReynolds  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

General biographical information

Wikisource: President Wilson's Cabinet, in: The New Student's Reference Work, 1914  - Sources and full texts

Monographic publications

  • James Edward Bond: I dissent: the legacy of Justice James Clark McReynolds. Lanham 1992
  • John Knox: A Personal Recollection of Justice Cardozo. Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly 6, 1984.
  • John Knox: The forgotten memoir of John Knox. A year in the life of a Supreme Court clerk in FDR's Washington. University of Chicago Press. 2002

decisions

Wikisource: Meyer v. Nebraska, 1923  - Sources and full texts (English)
Wikisource: Nebbia v. New York, 1939  - Sources and full texts (English)

Article in TIME magazine about his tenure as a judge on the Supreme Court

personal data
SURNAME McReynolds, James C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McReynolds, James Clark (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and attorney general
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Elkton , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1946
Place of death Washington, DC