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McReynolds served on the Court from October 12, 1914 to his retirement on January 31, 1941, and was known for his conservative opinions opposing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation.
Born in Elkton, Kentucky, he graduated as valedictorian from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee in 1882 and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1884. He was secretary to Senator Howell Edmunds Jackson, who later became an associate justice himself. McReynolds practiced law in Nashville and served as Professor of Commercial Law, Insurance, & Corporations at Vanderbilt University Law School, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1896. Under Theodore Roosevelt he was Assistant Attorney General from 1903 to 1907, when he resigned to take up private practice in New York, New York.
While in private practice, he was retained by the Government in matters relating to enforcement of antitrust laws, particularly in proceedings against the Tobacco trust (See United States v. American Tobacco, 221 U.S. 106 (1911)) and the combination of the anthracite coal railroads.
On March 15, 1913, McReynolds was appointed the 48th United States Attorney General by President Wilson, where he remained until August 29, 1914, He made a reputation as a liberal 'trust buster'.
August 19 of the next year Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court, to a seat vacated by Horace H. Lurton. McReynolds was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 29, 1914, and received his commission the same day.
When rendering opinions, he was known for conciseness and brevity. His fierce opposition in the face of Franklin Roosevelt's legislation to fight the Great Depression led to his being labeled one of the "Four Horsemen", along with George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter and Pierce Butler.
McReynolds voted to strike down: the Tennessee Valley Authority; the National Industrial Recovery Act; and the Social Security Act 42 U.S.C.A. ยง 301 et seq. in Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548, 57 S. Ct. 883, 81 L. Ed. 1279 (1937). He continued to vote against New Deal measures after the Court's 1937 "switch" to upholding New Deal legislation. Professor Howard Ball called McReynolds "the most strident Court critic of Roosevelt's New Deal programs." With the death of Butler in 1939, McReynolds was the last of the Four Horsemen on the bench.
When the Supreme Court Building opened in 1935, McReynolds, like most of the other Justices, refused to move his office from his apartment into the new building but continued to work out of the office he maintained at his apartment.
After a substantial hearing loss, he assumed senior status on January 31, 1941, effectively resigning from the court. He continued to live at the Rochambeau Apartments in Washington, D.C., until his death on August 24, 1946.
Justice McReynolds wrote two early decisions using the Fourteenth Amendment to protect civil liberties: Meyer v. Nebraska 262 U.S. 390 (1923), and Pierce v. Society of Sisters 268 U.S. 510 (1925). Meyer involved a state law that prohibited the teaching of modern foreign languages in public schools. Meyer, who taught German in a Lutheran school, was convicted under this law. McReynolds wrote that the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment included an individual's right "to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, to establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, and generally to enjoy privileges, essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men". Thus the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was interpreted to mean that liberty means more than freedom from bodily restraint. State regulation of liberty must be reasonably related to a proper state objective. The legislature's view of reasonableness was subject to supervision by the courts.
Born in Elkton, Kentucky, he graduated as valedictorian from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee in 1882 and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1884. He was secretary to Senator Howell Edmunds Jackson, who later became an associate justice himself. McReynolds practiced law in Nashville and served as Professor of Commercial Law, Insurance, & Corporations at Vanderbilt University Law School, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1896. Under Theodore Roosevelt he was Assistant Attorney General from 1903 to 1907, when he resigned to take up private practice in New York, New York.
While in private practice, he was retained by the Government in matters relating to enforcement of antitrust laws, particularly in proceedings against the Tobacco trust (See United States v. American Tobacco, 221 U.S. 106 (1911)) and the combination of the anthracite coal railroads.
On March 15, 1913, McReynolds was appointed the 48th United States Attorney General by President Wilson, where he remained until August 29, 1914, He made a reputation as a liberal 'trust buster'.
August 19 of the next year Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court, to a seat vacated by Horace H. Lurton. McReynolds was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 29, 1914, and received his commission the same day.
When rendering opinions, he was known for conciseness and brevity. His fierce opposition in the face of Franklin Roosevelt's legislation to fight the Great Depression led to his being labeled one of the "Four Horsemen", along with George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter and Pierce Butler.
McReynolds voted to strike down: the Tennessee Valley Authority; the National Industrial Recovery Act; and the Social Security Act 42 U.S.C.A. ยง 301 et seq. in Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548, 57 S. Ct. 883, 81 L. Ed. 1279 (1937). He continued to vote against New Deal measures after the Court's 1937 "switch" to upholding New Deal legislation. Professor Howard Ball called McReynolds "the most strident Court critic of Roosevelt's New Deal programs." With the death of Butler in 1939, McReynolds was the last of the Four Horsemen on the bench.
When the Supreme Court Building opened in 1935, McReynolds, like most of the other Justices, refused to move his office from his apartment into the new building but continued to work out of the office he maintained at his apartment.
After a substantial hearing loss, he assumed senior status on January 31, 1941, effectively resigning from the court. He continued to live at the Rochambeau Apartments in Washington, D.C., until his death on August 24, 1946.
Justice McReynolds wrote two early decisions using the Fourteenth Amendment to protect civil liberties: Meyer v. Nebraska 262 U.S. 390 (1923), and Pierce v. Society of Sisters 268 U.S. 510 (1925). Meyer involved a state law that prohibited the teaching of modern foreign languages in public schools. Meyer, who taught German in a Lutheran school, was convicted under this law. McReynolds wrote that the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment included an individual's right "to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, to establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, and generally to enjoy privileges, essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men". Thus the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was interpreted to mean that liberty means more than freedom from bodily restraint. State regulation of liberty must be reasonably related to a proper state objective. The legislature's view of reasonableness was subject to supervision by the courts.
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