James Clark McReynolds

James Clark McReynolds
Born	James Clark McReynolds 3 2, 1862
Birthplace	Elkton, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Lawyer, judge, government official
Known for	Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; opposition to the New Deal; member of the "Four Horsemen"
Education	University of Virginia School of Law (LL.B.)

James Clark McReynolds (February 3, 1862 – August 24, 1946) was an American lawyer, government official, and jurist who served as the 48th United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and subsequently as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1914 to 1941. Born in rural Kentucky and educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia School of Law, McReynolds built his early legal reputation in Tennessee and later in Washington, D.C., where he became a noted antitrust litigator during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt. During his twenty-six years on the Supreme Court, McReynolds authored 506 majority opinions and 157 dissents, establishing himself as one of the most conservative members of the bench. He is perhaps best remembered as a member of the so-called "Four Horsemen," a bloc of conservative justices who frequently voted to strike down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation during the 1930s. McReynolds also authored notable majority opinions in landmark cases including Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which established foundational principles regarding individual liberty and parental rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. His legacy, however, is substantially overshadowed by his documented antisemitism, racism, and difficult personal temperament, which have led scholars and commentators to place him among the least favorably regarded justices in the Court's history.

Early Life

James Clark McReynolds was born on February 3, 1862, in Elkton, Kentucky, a small town in Todd County near the Tennessee border. He was raised in a prosperous and devoutly religious family. His father, Dr. John Oliver McReynolds, was a physician and plantation owner, and his mother, Ellen Reeves McReynolds, came from a prominent local family. The McReynolds household adhered to the strict tenets of the Disciples of Christ, also known as the Christian Church (Restoration Movement), and the church's moral framework profoundly shaped the young McReynolds's worldview and personal temperament.

McReynolds grew up in a post–Civil War Southern environment. Todd County, Kentucky, was a border-state region that had experienced deep divisions during the conflict, and the social attitudes of the Reconstruction era permeated the community in which he was raised. These early surroundings contributed to the formation of the conservative social views that would later define his judicial career and personal conduct.

As a young man, McReynolds demonstrated strong academic aptitude and a combative personality. He was known for his stubbornness and independence even as a boy, traits that would persist throughout his adult life. His family's relative affluence afforded him educational opportunities that were uncommon for many in rural Kentucky during this period.

Education

McReynolds attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he graduated first in his class in 1882 with a bachelor of science degree. His academic distinction at Vanderbilt reflected his intellectual abilities and rigorous work ethic. Following his undergraduate education, McReynolds enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of the nation's preeminent legal institutions during the late nineteenth century. He earned his law degree (LL.B.) from the university in 1884. While at the University of Virginia, McReynolds studied under the tutelage of noted legal scholar John B. Minor, whose instruction in common law and statutory interpretation influenced the young lawyer's approach to jurisprudence. His papers from this period are preserved in the archives of the University of Virginia Law Library.

Career

Early Legal Practice

After completing his legal education in 1884, McReynolds briefly served as secretary to Senator Howell Edmunds Jackson of Tennessee, gaining early exposure to the workings of the federal government. He subsequently relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he entered private practice. McReynolds established himself as a capable litigator in Nashville's legal community, handling both civil and commercial cases. He also served as a part-time professor of law at Vanderbilt University during the 1890s, teaching courses on commercial law and related subjects.

In Nashville, McReynolds developed a reputation as a principled but difficult personality. He was known for his exacting standards, brusque manner, and willingness to take unpopular positions. His political affiliation was with the Democratic Party, though his conservative views on economic matters often placed him at odds with the populist and progressive wings of the party that were gaining influence in the South during this period.

Assistant Attorney General

McReynolds's career in public service began in earnest when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him as the 10th United States Assistant Attorney General on May 2, 1903. In this capacity, McReynolds was assigned to the Department of Justice's antitrust division, where he became one of the government's most effective trust-busting prosecutors. His work aligned with the Roosevelt administration's progressive campaign against monopolistic business practices, and McReynolds gained national recognition for his aggressive pursuit of antitrust violations.

McReynolds played a significant role in the federal government's case against the American Tobacco Company, one of the most prominent antitrust proceedings of the era. His work on the case demonstrated both his legal acumen and his fierce independence; he was known to pursue cases with a tenacity that sometimes put him at odds with his superiors in the Justice Department. He served as Assistant Attorney General until March 24, 1907, when he departed the position. His successor in the role was Edward Terry Sanford, who would later himself serve on the Supreme Court.

After leaving government service, McReynolds returned to private practice, this time in New York City, where he continued to handle antitrust and corporate matters. He maintained his connections to Democratic Party politics and his reputation as a formidable antitrust advocate.

United States Attorney General

When Woodrow Wilson won the presidency in 1912, he selected McReynolds as his first Attorney General, and McReynolds assumed office on March 15, 1913. Wilson's choice was influenced by McReynolds's track record as an antitrust enforcer during the Roosevelt years, which aligned with Wilson's own progressive reform agenda. As Attorney General, McReynolds continued his vigorous prosecution of antitrust cases and initiated proceedings against several major corporate trusts.

McReynolds's tenure as Attorney General, however, was relatively brief and not without friction. His temperament proved challenging in the collegial environment of the Cabinet, and his abrasive personality created difficulties in his relationships with other administration officials. Wilson found McReynolds's behavior problematic and reportedly grew eager to move him to another position. When Associate Justice Horace Harmon Lurton died on July 12, 1914, Wilson saw an opportunity to resolve the situation by nominating McReynolds to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat. McReynolds was succeeded as Attorney General by Thomas Gregory on August 29, 1914.

Supreme Court Appointment

President Wilson nominated McReynolds to the Supreme Court on August 19, 1914. The nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 29, 1914, by a vote of 44 to 6, and McReynolds took the judicial oath on October 12, 1914. He replaced Lurton, a fellow Tennessean, as an Associate Justice. At the time of his appointment, McReynolds was widely perceived as a progressive figure due to his antitrust record, and many observers expected him to align with the liberal wing of the Court. This expectation would prove dramatically mistaken.

Jurisprudence and Notable Opinions

Over the course of his twenty-six-year tenure on the Supreme Court, McReynolds authored 506 majority opinions and 157 dissenting opinions. His jurisprudence evolved—or, in the view of some scholars, revealed itself—as deeply conservative, particularly on matters of economic regulation and the scope of federal power.

Among McReynolds's most significant majority opinions was Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), in which the Court struck down a Nebraska law prohibiting the teaching of foreign languages to young children. McReynolds's opinion for the Court established that the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed not merely freedom from physical restraint but also the right "to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children." This expansive reading of substantive due process would prove enormously influential in subsequent constitutional law, laying the groundwork for later decisions protecting individual rights and privacy.

Two years later, McReynolds extended this reasoning in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), in which the Court unanimously struck down an Oregon law requiring all children to attend public schools. McReynolds's opinion held that the law unreasonably interfered with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of their children. The decision became a cornerstone of parental rights jurisprudence and was later cited by the Supreme Court in cases involving reproductive rights and other privacy-related matters.

McReynolds also authored the majority opinion in Adams v. Tanner (1917), in which the Court struck down a Washington state law prohibiting employment agencies from charging fees to workers seeking jobs, holding that the law violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In United States v. Miller (1939), McReynolds authored the Court's unanimous opinion upholding the National Firearms Act, ruling that the Second Amendment did not guarantee an individual right to possess a sawed-off shotgun absent evidence that such a weapon had "some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia." This opinion remained the Court's most significant interpretation of the Second Amendment for nearly seven decades.

The Four Horsemen and Opposition to the New Deal

McReynolds's most consequential role on the Supreme Court came during the 1930s, when he emerged as one of the most implacable opponents of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislative program. Together with Justices Willis Van Devanter, George Sutherland, and Pierce Butler, McReynolds formed the conservative bloc that contemporaries and later historians dubbed the "Four Horsemen." This bloc consistently voted to strike down New Deal legislation on the grounds that it exceeded the constitutional powers of the federal government, violated principles of economic due process, or improperly delegated legislative authority to executive agencies.

Of McReynolds's 157 dissenting opinions, 93 were directed against New Deal measures or related expansions of federal regulatory power. He dissented forcefully in cases upholding the Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and other landmark New Deal statutes. McReynolds's dissents were often sharply worded and reflected his conviction that the federal government's growing role in economic life represented a fundamental departure from constitutional principles.

The conflict between the Four Horsemen and the Roosevelt administration reached its peak during the court-packing crisis of 1937, when Roosevelt proposed legislation to add additional justices to the Supreme Court in an effort to overcome the conservative bloc's opposition to his programs. While the proposal ultimately failed in Congress, the political pressure contributed to a shift in the Court's jurisprudence—often called "the switch in time that saved nine"—as Justice Owen Roberts began voting to uphold New Deal legislation. McReynolds, however, remained unyielding in his opposition and continued to dissent from decisions that expanded federal power.

Retirement

McReynolds assumed senior status on January 31, 1941, bringing his active service on the Supreme Court to an end after more than twenty-six years. His seat was filled by James F. Byrnes, who was nominated by President Roosevelt and confirmed by the Senate. McReynolds's retirement removed the last of the Four Horsemen from the active bench, completing Roosevelt's transformation of the Court's ideological composition.

Personal Life

McReynolds never married and had no children. He lived a solitary and private life in Washington, D.C., for much of his career. His personal conduct and temperament were sources of persistent controversy among his contemporaries. Colleagues on the Supreme Court, their clerks, and other Court staff frequently described McReynolds as rude, imperious, and difficult to work with.

McReynolds's antisemitism was well documented and overt. He refused to speak to Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the Supreme Court, for much of their overlapping tenure. When Justice Benjamin Cardozo, also Jewish, joined the Court in 1932, McReynolds similarly refused to engage with him and reportedly would leave the room when Cardozo entered. According to accounts from the period, no official photograph of the full Court was taken in 1924 because McReynolds refused to sit next to Brandeis, as protocol required. His hostility toward Jewish colleagues extended to other settings as well; he was reported to have made derogatory remarks about Jews in both public and private contexts.

McReynolds was also documented as holding racist views. He refused to accept African American law clerks and reportedly objected to the presence of women in his courtroom and on legal staffs. His secretary, Gertrude Jenkins, who also served Justices Harlan Fiske Stone and Felix Frankfurter during the 1930s, provided accounts of his difficult behavior.

McReynolds died on August 24, 1946, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 84. According to reports, few attended his funeral, reflecting the personal isolation in which he spent his final years. He was buried in Elkton, Kentucky, the town of his birth.

Recognition

McReynolds's recognition during his lifetime was largely confined to the legal and governmental spheres. His appointment to the Supreme Court was itself a significant honor, and his tenure of more than twenty-six years placed him among the longer-serving justices in the Court's history.

After his death, however, McReynolds's legacy became increasingly defined by his personal conduct rather than his judicial contributions. Scholars and legal commentators have frequently included him on lists of the least effective or most objectionable Supreme Court justices, citing both his obstructionist approach to New Deal legislation and his documented bigotry.

In February 2017, Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, removed McReynolds's name from a building on its campus. The decision came after students researched McReynolds's history and brought his documented antisemitism, racism, and misogyny to the attention of the college administration. The building, previously known as McReynolds Hall, was renamed to reflect its street address. The decision at Centre College reflected a broader trend in American institutions of reexamining public honors granted to historical figures with records of overt bigotry.

McReynolds's papers are held by the University of Virginia Law Library, providing a primary source for scholars studying his life and career.

Legacy

The legacy of James Clark McReynolds is complex and contested. On one hand, his majority opinions in Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters represent enduring contributions to American constitutional law. These decisions established substantive due process protections for individual liberty, parental rights, and educational freedom that have been cited and built upon by the Supreme Court in numerous subsequent cases, including decisions involving privacy rights, reproductive autonomy, and family law. The principles articulated by McReynolds in these opinions have transcended the conservative judicial philosophy from which they originated and have been embraced by legal thinkers across the ideological spectrum.

Similarly, his opinion in United States v. Miller served as the primary judicial interpretation of the Second Amendment for nearly seventy years, until the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) substantially revised the understanding of the Amendment's scope.

On the other hand, McReynolds's sustained opposition to the New Deal has been viewed by many historians as an attempt to use judicial power to obstruct democratically enacted responses to the Great Depression. The Four Horsemen's resistance to federal economic regulation contributed to a constitutional crisis that threatened the institutional legitimacy of the Supreme Court itself during the court-packing controversy of 1937.

McReynolds's personal conduct has further diminished his historical standing. His overt antisemitism, racism, and misogyny have made him an emblematic figure in discussions of prejudice within the American judiciary. The refusal of Centre College to continue honoring his name in 2017 reflected the judgment that his personal bigotry outweighed his contributions to the institution.

Taken together, McReynolds's career illustrates the tensions inherent in evaluating historical judicial figures whose professional contributions coexist with profound personal failings. His jurisprudence produced both landmark protections for individual liberty and rigid resistance to the expansion of federal power during a period of national crisis, while his personal conduct represented some of the most documented instances of bigotry in the Supreme Court's history.