Evening star., 1946-08-26
McReynoIds
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| 'McReynoIds
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the Washington Cathedral. Despite
a heavy rain, the aged jurist-a
Southern Democrat and former At
torney General in the cabinet oi
President Wilson-attended the serv-
ices and stood with the only present
Republican member of the high
court, Associate Justice Burton
His death leaves only two surviv-
ing members of the court which
President Roosevelt said was made
UP of mine old men" living in a
horse and buggy age" They are
former Chief Justice Hughes and
former Justice Roberts. OF all men,
bers of the court, Justice McReynolds
was looked upon by the Roosevelt
administration as the bitterest foe of
most New Deal legislation.
adopted" 80 British Children.
Despite bis dissents and often
gruff speech from the bench, JUS
tice McReynolds had many close
friends attracted by a kindly per-
sonal manner and an unostentatious
mode of life. He was bachelor but
adopted" 33 children in Great
Britain who were left homeless by
the German blitz. Throughout his
long active life, including 26 years on
the Supreme Court and many others
in the Government service, he never
lost his boyhood love for his Ken
lucky home.
When Justice McReynolds retired
from the Supreme Court February
i. 1941, after 26 years of service, he
was regarded by the Roosevelt ad-
ministration as an arch-conserva-
tive and the most uncompromising
foe of the New Deal.
He alone of all the Supreme Court
justices voted against every one OF
the 13 ajor New Deal test cases
brought before the court from 1888
to 1886. With the appointment of
members more favorable to the
administrations policies, Justice
McReynolds continued in later
years as the courts leading dis
Senter.
Expert on Jurisprudence.
A recognized expert on juris-
prudence and on antitrust statutes,
he held the record in the courts
entire history for writing opinions
holding laws or parts of laws un-
constitutional. He wrote nine of the
76 opinions of that kind.
At the time of his appointment
to the court by President Wilson in
August, 1914. Mr.. McReynolds was
generally classified as liberal and
looked upon in some circles as
almost radical.
He was born February 8, 1862,
the son of a physician. After grad
uating from Vanderbilt Univer-
sity in 1882 and obtaining his
law degree two years later at the
University of Virginia, he was Sec
retary for short time to the then
Senator Howell E. Jackson of Ten
nessee, later a Supreme Court JUS
tice Later he practiced law in
Nashville. .,.a s,.s-s
Ran for Congress In 1896.
+ His only excursion into campaign
politics came in 1896 when he ran
for Congress. AS a Gold Democrat
he was out of sympathy with the
Democratic presidential nominee,
William Jennings Bryan, but never
theleSs was defeated.
Nearly 40 years later, the gold
issue arose in a different form in
his most famous dissent on the
Supreme Court. 1t caused his most
widely quoted remark: The Con-
stitution is gone
He was moved to that utterance
from the Supreme Court bench
when, in 1885, he dissented from the
5-to-4 majority decision upholding
the administrations gold clause
Legislation.
Served under Theodore Roosevelt.
Although Mr. McReynolds entered
the cabinet of President Wilson in
March, 1913. as Attorney General and
served for II months until his ele-
vation to the Supreme Court, he
I earlier was an Assistant Attorney
General in the Republican admin
istration of President Theodore
Roosevelt from 1903 to 1907.
He was employed principally to
prosecute the tobacco trust" At
the time it was generally agreed
that politics played little or no part
in his selection by Attorney General
Knox.
While Mr.. McReynolds was At
torney General he took stand on
judicial retirements that was to
echo in 1887, during the fight over
the New Deal plan to reorganize
the Supreme Court. He recon-
mended in 1918 that whenever a
Federal judge refused to leave the
bench on reaching retirement age,
another judge should be appointed
for the same court, Mr.. McReynolds.
however, specifically exempted the
Supreme Court.
Insisted on Applying Law Literally.
Before his appointment to the
supreme Court, he was named by
the court to committee to frame
laws regulating its jurisdiction. He
was quoted at that time and many
times since as insisting that law
whether basic or statutory, meant
what it said, and that literal ap-
plication should be the rule.
His appointment to the Supreme
Court repeatedly resulted not only
from his abilities as a lawyer, but
from his inability or unwillingness
to enter actively into the political