James Clark McReynolds - McReynolds in fiction

Judge, born in Elkton, Kentucky, USA. As assistant US attorney general (1903–7) and as a federal prosecutor, he gained a reputation as a ‘trustbuster’. President Woodrow Wilson named him attorney general (1913–14) and appointed him to the US Supreme Court (1914–41). A strict constructionist, he wrote over 100 dissenting opinions that often opposed New Deal measures.

James Clark McReynolds

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Term in office
October 12, 1914 – January 31, 1941
Preceded by	Horace Harmon Lurton
Succeeded by	James F. Byrnes
Nominated by	Woodrow Wilson
Born	February 3, 1862 Elkton, Kentucky
Died	August 24, 1946 Washington, D.C.

James Clark McReynolds (February 3, 1862–August 24, 1946) was an American lawyer and judge who served both as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

McReynolds served on the Court from October 12, 1914 to his retirement on January 31, 1941, and was known for his conservative opinions in opposing to President Franklin D.

In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson named him United States Attorney General and the next year appointed him to the Court. McReynolds despised Roosevelt and never denied an attributed quote from him that stated, "I'll never resign (from the Court) as long as that crippled son-of-a-bitch is in the White House."

McReynolds voted to strike down the Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Social Security Act and continued to vote against New Deal measures after the Court's 1937 "switch" to upholding New Deal legislation.

McReynolds is widely considered one of the most unpleasant men to ever sit on the Court, being labeled "Scrooge" by Drew Pearson. Chief Justice William Howard Taft had to cancel the annual photograph of the justices in 1924 when McReynolds refused to sit next to Louis Brandeis (the first Jew on the Court), where he belonged on the basis of seniority. McReynolds also refused to speak to Brandeis for three years following Brandeis's appointment and when Brandeis retired in 1939, did not sign the customary dedicatory letter sent to justices on their retirement.

However, McReynolds had a great love of children despite never marrying. When the Supreme Court Building opened, McReynolds refused to move his office from his apartment into the new building.

He resigned from the court in 1941 and lived in Washington, D.C.

McReynolds in fiction

McReynolds is portrayed as head of the Confederate Supreme Court in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 books. When McReynolds declares a popular bill by President Jake Featherston unconstitutional, Featherston abolishes the court through a legal loophole.

McReynolds also appears briefly in Kermit Roosevelt III's 2005 legal thriller "In The Shadow of the Law."