McReynolds, James Clark (1862-1946), was one of the “nine old men” of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1930’s. McReynolds served as an associate justice from 1914 to 1941. He consistently opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal measures. To offset this opposition, Roosevelt proposed in 1937 that when a justice reached 70 years of age, a younger justice be appointed to sit with him on the court. The proposal was never approved.
McReynolds was born in Elkton, Kentucky. He practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee, and served from 1903 to 1907 as assistant attorney general under President Theodore Roosevelt. President Woodrow Wilson named him U.S. attorney general in 1913, and appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1914.
