James McReynolds

James Clark McReynolds was an American lawyer and judge who served as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He served on the Court from October 12, 1914 to his retirement on January 31, 1941, during the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He was best known for his sustained opposition to the actions by Roosevelt and his overt anti-semitism. In his twenty-six years on the bench, McReynolds wrote more than 506 majority opinions for the court and 93 minority opinions against the New Deal. He was one of the “Four Horsemen” (together with Willis Van Devanter, George Sutherland, and Pierce Butler), who represented the opposition to Roosevelt’s New Deal.