James Clark McReynolds
Biography Notes
 
1.  Justices Willis Van Devanter, Pierce Butler, George Sutherland, and McReynolds were nicknamed the "Four Horsemen," a double allusion to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Notre Dame's defensive football team, because they consistently voted as a "bloc" against Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. "They believed, and maintained, that the Constitution was intended not to change with time, that its strictures against government regulation of the economy were permanent, and that its exaltation of the judiciary as a buffer for property rights was one of the fundamentals of American political thought." G. Edward White, The American Judicial Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 195.
2. Roosevelt (FDR) tried unsuccessfully to pass legislation that would allow him to increase the number of justices on the Court and dilute the power of the "Four Horsemen." Their narrow interpretation of the Constitution was simply incompatible with the economic and social reforms FDR thought necessary to bring the nation out of the depression. The FDR plan was simple. The Supreme Court consisted of nine members, six of whom were over seventy. For each member who declined to retire at age seventy, FDR proposed that a co-justice be appointed to serve alongside the older justice. If the bill became law, FDR could immediately appoint six co-justices and the membership of the court would jump to fifteen members. If any or all of the justices over seventy retired, FDR could then fill their vacancies, and the Court would remain at nine members. Either way, FDR would have the authority to place on the Supreme Court persons whose philosophy agreed with his. Bernard Schwartz, A History of the Supreme Court (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 233-235; Leonard Baker, Back to Back: The Duel Between FDR and the Supreme Court (New York: Macmillan Company, 1967).
3. The criticisms are from, respectively, Harry Phillips, History of the Sixth Circuit (Washington, D. C: GPO, 1977), 64; Alpheus T. Mason, William Howard Taft: Chief Justice (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965), 215; William Howard Taft to Helen Taft Manning, William Howard Taft Papers, Library of Congress.
4. David Bruner, "James C. McReynolds." In The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Vol. III. eds., Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel. 1969. (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, Reprint. 1997), 1008.
5. Clare Cushman, ed. The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995 2d ed. (Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court Historical Society, 1995), 327; 334 U.S. xxi (1948).
6. Kermit Hall, ed. Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 542.
7. McReynolds received this moniker because he supported the conservative monetary policy known as the gold standard.
8. 334 U.S. xvi (1948).
9. United States v. American Tobacco Company, 221 U.S. 106 (1911).
10. National Cyclopædia of American Biography. 33 (Clifton, N.J.: J. T. White, 1893- ).
11. Dictionary of American Biography. Supp. 4 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928-1936), 536.
12. Officially called the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910. It enabled the Interstate Commerce Commission to initiate rate changes and to regulate telephone, telegraph, cable, and wireless companies.
13. David Burner, "James C. McReynolds." in The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions, 5 vols., eds., Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel. 1969. Reprint. (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997), 1010; Cushman, The Supreme Court Justices, 327.
14. 334 U.S. xvii (1948); DAB, 538.
15. Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935).
16. United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936).
17. Carter v. Carter Coal Company, 298 U.S. 238 (1936).
18. 262 U.S. 390 (1923).
19. 279 U.S. 159 (1929).
20. 279 U.S. 461 (1929).
21. 301 U.S. 548 at 603 (1937).
22. Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 at 182 (1926).
23. Cushman, The Supreme Court Justices, 330.
24. Henry J. Abraham, Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 2d. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 227.
25. 5 Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly (1983).
26. Cushman, The Supreme Court Justices, 330.
27.  334 U.S. vii (1948).