James Clark McReynolds
James McReynolds | |
---|---|
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
In office October 12, 1914 – January 31, 1941[1] | |
Nominated by | Woodrow Wilson |
Preceded by | Horace Harmon Lurton |
Succeeded by | James F. Byrnes |
48th United States Attorney General | |
In office March 15, 1913 – August 29, 1914 | |
President | Woodrow Wilson |
Preceded by | George Wickersham |
Succeeded by | Thomas Gregory |
Personal details | |
Born | James Clark McReynolds February 3, 1862 Elkton, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | August 24, 1946 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 84)
Political party | Democratic |
Education | |
James Clark McReynolds (February 3, 1862 – August 24, 1946) was an American lawyer and judge from Tennessee who served as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He served on the Court from 1914 to his retirement in 1941. McReynolds is best known today for his sustained opposition to the domestic programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his personality, which was widely viewed negatively and included documented elements of overt antisemitism and racism.[2][3]
Born in
In his 26 years on the bench, McReynolds wrote 506 majority opinions for the Court and 157 dissents, 93 of which were against the New Deal. He was part of the "Four Horsemen" bloc of conservative justices who frequently voted to strike down New Deal programs. He assumed senior status in 1941 and was succeeded by James F. Byrnes. During his Supreme Court tenure, McReynolds wrote the majority opinion in cases such as Meyer v. Nebraska, United States v. Miller, Adams v. Tanner, and Pierce v. Society of Sisters. Due to his bigotry and temperament, McReynolds is sometimes included on lists of the worst Supreme Court justices.[4]
Early life
Born in
McReynolds was secretary to U.S. Senator
McReynolds became active in politics, running unsuccessfully for Congress in 1896 as a "Goldbug" Democrat.[B] As head of the Tennessee delegation to the 1896 Democratic National Convention, he wrote the party's "sound money" plank.[12] Under Theodore Roosevelt, McReynolds served as Assistant Attorney General from 1903 to 1907, when he resigned to take up private practice with the law firm of Guthrie, Cravath, and Henderson (later renamed Cravath, Swaine & Moore) in New York City.
Attorney General
While in private practice, McReynolds was retained by the government in matters relating to enforcement of
Supreme Court
On August 19, 1914, Wilson
When the Supreme Court Building opened in 1935 during the Great Depression, McReynolds, like most of the other justices, refused to move his office into the new building. He continued to work out of the office he maintained in his apartment.[18] He said that, with the country in economic turmoil, the government should not have spent so much money on a single building.[18]
Important opinions
In his 27 years on the bench, McReynolds wrote 506 decisions, an average of just under 19 opinions for each term of the Court during his tenure. In addition, he authored 157 dissents, 93 of which were against the New Deal.[19][20]
McReynolds's fierce opposition to
As a confirmed opponent of federal authority aimed toward social ends or economic regulation, McReynolds had the "single-minded passion of a zealot".[5] He was a "firm believer in laissez-faire economic theory", which he said was constitutionally enshrined.[5] After the "Lochner era" ended in 1937—the Court's "switch in time that saved nine"—McReynolds became a dissenter.[15] Unchanging through his 1941 retirement, his dissents continued to decry the federal government's exercises of power. In Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548 (1937),[1] he dissented from a decision upholding the Social Security Act. He wrote: "I can not find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States".[22][5]
McReynolds wrote two early decisions using the Fourteenth Amendment to protect civil liberties: Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923), and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925). Meyer involved a state law that prohibited the teaching of modern foreign languages in public schools. Meyer, who taught German in a Lutheran school, was convicted under this law. In overturning the conviction on substantive due process grounds, McReynolds wrote that the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment included an individual's right "to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, to establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, and generally to enjoy privileges, essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men". These two decisions survived the post-Lochner era.[15]
Pierce involved a challenge to a law forbidding parents to send their children to any but public schools. McReynolds wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court, holding that the Act violated the liberty of parents to direct the education of their children: "the fundamental liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only". These decisions were revived long after McReynolds left the bench, to buttress the Court's announcement of a constitutional right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), and later the constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
McReynolds wrote the decision in United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939), the only Supreme Court case directly involving the Second Amendment until District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008.[20] In the field of tax law, he wrote for the Court in Burnet v. Logan, 283 U.S. 404 (1931), a significant decision setting out the Court's doctrine regarding "open transactions."
He also wrote the dissent in the
Personality and conflicts
McReynolds was labeled "Scrooge" by journalist Drew Pearson.[C] Chief Justice William Howard Taft thought him selfish, prejudiced, and "one who delights in making others uncomfortable ... [H]e has a continual grouch, and is always offended because the court is doing something that he regards as undignified."[23][24] Taft also wrote that McReynolds was the most irresponsible member of the Court, and that "[i]n the absence of McReynolds everything went smoothly."[25]
Early on, his temperament affected his performance in the court.[14] For example, he determined that John Clarke, another Wilson appointee, was "too liberal" and refused to speak with him.[14] Clarke decided to resign early from the court, and said that McReynolds's open antipathy was a factor.[26] McReynolds refused to sign the customary joint memorial letter for Clarke, which was always given to departing members.[27] In a letter, Taft commented that "[t]his is a fair sample of McReynolds's personal character and the difficulty of getting along with him."[28]
Taft wrote that although he considered McReynolds an "able man", he found him to be "selfish to the last degree ... fuller of prejudice than any man I have ever known ... one who delights in making others uncomfortable. He has no sense of duty ... really seems to have less of a loyal spirit to the Court than anybody."[29] In 1929 McReynolds asked Taft to announce opinions assigned to him (McReynolds), explaining that "an imperious voice has called me out of town. I don't think my sudden illness will prove fatal, but strange things some time [sic] happen around Thanksgiving."[30] Duck hunting season had opened and McReynolds was off to Maryland for some shooting. In 1925, he left so suddenly on a similar errand that he had no opportunity to notify the Chief Justice of his departure. Taft was infuriated as two important decisions he wanted to deliver were delayed, because McReynolds had not handed in a dissent before leaving.[31]
McReynolds went on tirades about "un-Americans" and "political subversives."
When
According to John Frush Knox, McReynolds's law clerk for the 1936–37 term (following the seven-year clerkship of Maurice Mahoney), and one author of a memoir of McReynolds's service, McReynolds never spoke to Cardozo at all,[34] and several sources report that he did not attend Cardozo's memorial ceremonies held at the Supreme Court.[41][44][45] (On the other hand, the report that he did not attend Felix Frankfurter's swearing-in—with regard to which he is reported to have exclaimed, "My God, another Jew on the Court!"[46]—was refuted by Supreme Court historian Franz Jantzen, as cited by T. C. Peppers in the Richmond Public Interest Law Review.[47][2])
In 1922, Taft proposed that members of the Court accompany him to Philadelphia on a ceremonial occasion, but McReynolds refused, writing: "As you know, I am not always to be found when there is a Hebrew abroad. Therefore, my 'inability' to attend must not surprise you."[48] However, the oft-repeated story that McReynolds refused to sit for the 1924 Court photograph because of his hostility to Brandeis is untrue. McReynolds objected to taking a new photograph when there had been no change in the membership of the court since the 1923 photograph.[49] Alpheus T. Mason misinterpreted this as hostility to Brandeis, but McReynolds sat for numerous photographs for which Brandeis (and later Felix Frankfurter) were present.[50]
Once, when colleague
McReynolds's rudeness was not confined to colleagues on the Court, or Jews. When
As a Justice, McReynolds held privileges at the
When a woman lawyer appeared in the courtroom, McReynolds reportedly muttered: "I see the female is here again." He often left the bench when a woman lawyer rose to present a case.[36] He found the wearing of wristwatches by men effeminate, and the use of red fingernail polish by women vulgar.[35]
McReynolds forbade smoking in his presence, and is said to have been responsible for the "No Smoking" signs in the Supreme Court Building, inaugurated during his tenure.[55] He announced to any justice who attempted to smoke in conference that "tobacco smoke is personally objectionable to me". Any who tried "were stopped at the threshold".[56]
But McReynolds was reportedly "extremely charitable" to the pages who worked at the Court,[56] and had a great love of children.[5] For example, he gave very generous assistance and adopted 33 children who were victims of the German bombing of London in 1940, and left a sizable fortune to charity.[35][36] After Oliver Wendell Holmes's wife died, McReynolds wept at her funeral.[54] Holmes wrote in 1926: "Poor McReynolds is, I think, a man of feeling and of more secret kindliness than he would get credit for."[35]
McReynolds often entertained at his apartment, and occasionally passed cigarettes to his guests.[56] He often invited people for brunch on Sunday mornings. According to William O. Douglas, "On these informal occasions in his own home he was the essence of hospitality and a very delightful companion."[57] Once, when riding to his office on a street car, a drunk got on board and fell out in the aisle. McReynolds picked him up, helped him back to his seat, and sat beside him until they reached the top of Capitol Hill, leaving him only after giving explicit instructions to the conductor.[58] When he was required to preside in court, due to absence of more senior justices, "he was the soul of courtesy, graciously greeting and raptly listening to the arguments by lawyers of both sexes."[36] The public McReynolds was noted for his hospitality. He entertained frequently at the Willard Hotel with guest lists of 150 people, including his fellow justices, and at an annual eggnog party that was one of the social highlights of the Christmas season. Alice Roosevelt, one of many friends, requested the services of his cook, Mrs. Parker, for her wedding breakfast on the occasion of her marriage to Nicholas Longworth.[59]
Retirement
After a substantial hearing loss in 1925, McReynolds strongly intended to resign from the Court, and was dissuaded only by requests by many friends, who called him "one of the few who have courageously stood for the rights of property and of the citizen."[60] McReynolds retired on January 31, 1941, and assumed senior status. He lived at the Rochambeau apartment complex in Washington, D.C. from 1915 until President Roosevelt requisitioned the building in 1935 for his New Deal requirements. McReynolds found a new apartment at 2400 Sixteenth Street.
Death and legacy
McReynolds never married.[5][15] He died on August 24, 1946, and was buried in the Elkton Cemetery in Elkton, Kentucky. Elkton residents fondly remembered him, pointing out both his home and office "with great pride and respect".[61]
Knox wrote "in 1946 he [McReynolds] died a very lonely death in a hospital – without a single friend or relative at his bedside." He was buried in Kentucky, but no member of the Court attended his funeral. In contrast, as the clerk noted, when McReynolds's aged
In his will, McReynolds wrote, "let there be no service in Washington". The U.S. Marshal for the Supreme Court traveled to Elkton for the funeral. The
McReynolds bequeathed his entire estate to charity.[5][35][36] Among these bequests were additional funds to Children's Hospital in Washington, which he had supported for years, adding a new elevator, $10,000 and the residue of his estate. His books and opinions were left to the Library of Congress, and $10,000 and his judicial robe to Vanderbilt University, where he had served for 30 years on the Board of Trustees.[63]
Papers
McReynolds's papers are held at many libraries around the country, mainly at the
See also
- List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 3)
- List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Hughes Court
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Taft Court
- United States Supreme Court cases during the White Court
Further reading
Scholarly books
- Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: ISBN 0-87187-554-3. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- Bond, James Edward (1992). I Dissent: The Legacy of Chief Justice James Clark McReynolds. Lanham, MD: George Mason University Press.[full citation needed] Note, the designation of McReynolds as "Chief" Justice in the title is an error.
- Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L. (eds.). The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. New York: ISBN 0-7910-1377-4. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
Limited preview.
- Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995. ]
Law journal articles
- Knox, John (1984). "A Personal Recollection of Justice Cardozo". Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly. 6.[full citation needed]
- Jantzen, Franz (November 2015). "Urban Legend Department: McReynolds, Brandeis and the Myth of the 1924 Group Photograph". S2CID 145392466. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
James Clark McReynolds (Associate Justice, 1914-1941) might be the single most personally unpopular Supreme Court Justice in history... But was he so anti-Semitic that there is no group photograph for 1924 because he refused to sit next to Justice Louis D. Brandeis, as the seating arrangement dictated? Although this story is frequently cited as evidence of just how obnoxious he could be, it is not true.
- Peppers, Todd C. (May 14, 2021). "Cancelling Justice? The Case of James Clark McReynolds". Richmond Public Interest Law Review. 24 (2): 59–77, esp. 65f. Retrieved January 27, 2022. See also this alternative link to the full paper.
[Under section entitled, "Justice James Clark McReynolds: The "Ebenezer Scrooge" of the Court", citation numbers remaining, citations omitted] "McReynolds was unquestionably the most unpleasant individual to sit on the Supreme Court bench. The list of adjectives that could be used to describe McReynolds includes racist, anti-Semite, misogynist, imperious, lazy, miserly and curmudgeon. Those who regularly interacted with McReynolds—his fellow justices, his long-time messenger, his domestic staff, his law clerks, and even members of his country club—were targets of his snobbery and vitriol. Chief Justice William Howard Taft himself once described McReynolds as a 'continual grouch' and 'selfish to the last degree... fuller of prejudice than any man I have ever known... one who delights in making others uncomfortable. He has no sense of duty... [and] really seems to have less of a loyal spirit to the Court than anybody.'[35] / Some criticism of McReynolds, however, seems remarkably petty. Biographers and journalists sniped at McReynolds for being a mediocre golfer whose slow play held up foursomes behind him.[36] He hated tobacco and would ask smokers to extinguish their cigarettes and cigars, was a dangerous driver, and may have had an affair with a married woman.[37] Even his physical appearance was fair game: 'McReynolds is a bachelor, tall, slender and has a face with such a Satanic look that in it there is a certain charm.'[38] / Like many controversial figures, however, the stories about McReynolds' nasty personality have taken on a life of their own and the line between fact and fiction has been blurred. In a recent article, Supreme Court historian Franz Jantzen debunks two popular rumors related to McReynolds' antisemitism: (1) that McReynolds refused to have his official portrait taken because he did not want to sit next to Louis Brandeis (the first Jewish justice), and (2) that McReynolds refused to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Felix Frankfurter (the third Jewish justice).[39] While conceding that McReynolds had racist and religious prejudices, Jantzen ends with an important warning: 'We can only truly take the measure of the man by using those things that he actually said and did...not by using myth and innuendo.'[40] / Nor can you take the full measure of the man without discussing all of his attributes – positive and negative. In a 1939 Time article, the magazine raised a familiar set of charges against the Justice: he was a man "intolerably rude, antiSemitic [sic], savagely sarcastic, incredibly reactionary, Puritanical, prejudiced."[41] The same article, however, observed that the McReynolds 'legend' (an important choice of words) 'had little to say about his tenderness to his narrow circle of friends, his unfailing generosity, his clear legal perception, his unerring eye and ear for the false, the unessential.'"
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- UNKNOWN, ed. (1976). "[James Clark McReynolds]". Biographical Dictionary of the Federal Judiciary. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research.
Limited preview.
[full citation needed][verification needed] - Urofsky, Melvin I., ed. (1994). "[James Clark McReynolds]". The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: ]
- "McReynolds, James Clark," Dictionary of American Biography.[full citation needed]
- "McReynolds, James Clark," American National Biography.[full citation needed]
- James Clark McReynolds at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
Other works
- Bibliography on James Clark McReynolds at 6th Circuit United States Court of Appeals.
Notes
- ^ One block from the Todd County courthouse, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places Inventory.[8]
- ^ See free silver.
- ^ This is the title of the chapter dedicated to McReynolds in Pearson & Allen (1936).
- ^ "[McReynolds] was a headache ... He would not speak to Brandeis, was clearly anti-Semitic, and was a disruptive force."[32]
References
- ^ a b "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- ^ Richmond Public Interest Law Review. 24 (2): 59–77, esp. 65f. Retrieved January 27, 2022. See also this alternative link to the full paper, and the extensive quoted content under Further reading.
- ^ Educational Broadcasting Corporation. WNET-Thirteen.org. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- ^ Millhiser, Ian (24 March 2015). "The Five Worst Supreme Court Justices In American History, Ranked". ThinkProgress.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Hall (2005)
- ISBN 978-1-57607-973-7.
- ^ Jones (1983)
- ^ National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: McReynolds House. National Park Service, 1976-06, 3.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- The Upsilonian. 17. Upsilon Sigma Phi: 1. Archived from the original(PDF) on May 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
- ISBN 978-0-8147-9404-3. Archivedfrom the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
- ^ a b "James C. McReynolds". Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
- ^ a b "James Clark McReynolds, Attorney General". Department of Justice. Archived from the original on April 15, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
- ^ Chicago Kent College of Law. Archivedfrom the original on March 28, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Ariens, Michael (2002–2005). "James Clark McReynolds". Michael Ariens website. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
- ^ a b McMillion, Barry J. (January 28, 2022). Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- ^ "McREYNOLDS CONFIRMED.; Vote 44 to 6 In Senate;- Favorable Action on Gregory Also". The New York Times. August 30, 1914. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
- ^ a b Bush (2010)
- ^ Burner (1969), p. 2026
- ^ a b Lucas, Roy (2004). "The Forgotten Justice James Clark McReynolds & The Neglected First, Second & Fourteenth Amendments". Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on October 25, 2011. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
- ^ Ball (2006), p. 89
- ^ Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548, 603 (1937).
- ^ Letter from Taft to Horace Taft, December 26, 1924; quoted in Pringle (1939), p. 971
- ^ Schlesinger (1960), p. 456
- ^ Letter from Taft to Helen Taft Manning, June 11, 1923, quoted in Mason (1964), p. 215
- ^ Bickel & Schmidt (1985), p. 413
- ^ Warner (1959), p. 115
- ^ Letter from Taft to R.A. Taft, October 26, 1922, quoted in Mason (1964), p. 217
- ^ Letter from William Howard Taft to Helen Taft Manning, June 11, 1923; Mason (1964), pp. 215–216
- ^ Letter from J.C. McReynolds to Taft, November 23, 1929, quoted in Mason (1964), p. 216
- ^ Letter from William Howard Taft to R.A. Taft, February 1, 1925, quoted in Mason (1964), p. 216
- ^ Taft, Charles P. Swindler, William F. (ed.). My Father the Chief Justice, Yearbook 1977. The Supreme Court Historical Society. p. 8.
- ^ Burner (1969)
- ^ a b Abraham (1999), pp. 133–135
- ^ a b c d e f Burner (1969), p. 2024
- ^ a b c d e f g Baker (1991), p. 465
- ^ Hall (1992), p. 543
- ^ Baker (1984), p. 370
- ^ Quoted in Pearson & Allen (1936), p. 225
- ^ a b Pearson & Allen (1936), p. 225
- ^ a b Kaufman (1998), p. 480
- ^ "The Nine Old Men". p. 219. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
But the brusque attitude of Butler and the deliberate hazing administered by McReynolds, who read a newspaper while the new Justice took the oath of office, deeply hurt his sensitive soul.
- ^ Kaufman (1998), p. 480, attributed to Paul A. Freund at a talk delivered before the Harvard Law School Forum, March 7, 1977, from Kaufman's notes.
- ^ Atkinson (1999), p. 111
- ^ Baker (1984), p. 357
- ^ Abraham (2008), p. 140
- S2CID 145392466. Retrieved January 27, 2022. See also the additional quoted content under this source, in Further reading
- ^ Letter from McReynolds to Taft, c. February 1922, quoted in Mason (1964), pp. 216–217
- ^ "The difficulty is with me and me alone ... I have absolutely refused to go through the bore of picture-taking again until there is a change in the Court, and maybe not even then." Letter from McReynolds to Taft, c. March 1924, quoted in Mason (1964), p. 217
- ^ Liptak, Adam (December 10, 2018). "The Stories Behind the Supreme Court's Class Photos". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-19-970943-4. Archivedfrom the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- ^ Knox (2002)
- ^ Pearson & Allen (1936), p. 131
- ^ a b Pearson & Allen (1936), p. 226
- ^ Burner (1969), pp. 2023–2024
- ^ a b c Douglas (1980), p. 13
- ^ Douglas (1980), p. 14
- ^ Pearson & Allen (1936), pp. 226–227
- ^ Bush (2010), p. 75
- ^ Bush (2010), p. 110
- ^ Christensen, George A. (1983). "Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices". Journal of the Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 3, 2005. at Wayback Machine.
- ^ Christian Science Monitor, August 27, 1946, p. 16.
- ^ Bush (2010), p. 238
- ^ "Inventory of the Papers of Justice James Clark McReynolds 1819–1967". Collection Number Mss 85-1, A Collection in The Arthur J. Morris Law Library, Special Collections. University of Virginia. Archived from the original on March 1, 2012. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
- ^ Location of Papers, 6th Circuit United States Court of Appeals. Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Federal Judicial Center, James Clark McReynolds Resources". Archived from the original on 2010-05-30. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-8476-9604-9.
- ISBN 978-0-7425-5894-6.
- Atkinson, David (1999). Leaving the Bench: Supreme Court Justices at the End. ISBN 978-0-7006-1058-7.
- Baker, Leonard (1984). Brandeis and Frankfurter: A Dual Biography. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-015245-1.
- Ball, Howard (2006). Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507814-4.
- Baker, Liva (1991). The Justice from Beacon Hill: the Life and Times of Oliver Wendell Holmes. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-016629-0.
- Macmillan Publishing Company.
- Burner, David (1969). "James C. McReynolds". In Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred (eds.). The Justices of the United States Supreme Court 1789–1969: Their Lives and Major Opinions. New York: ISBN 978-0-8352-0217-6.
- Bush, Ann McReynolds (2010). Executive Disorder: The Subversion of the United States Supreme Court, 1914–1940. Cornelia Wendell Bush. ISBN 978-1-4536-5264-0.
- ISBN 0-394-49240-4.
- ISBN 0-19-505835-6.
- ISBN 978-0-641-99779-2.
- Jones, Calvin P. (1983). "Kentucky's irascible conservative: Supreme Court Justice James Clark McReynolds". Filson Club History Quarterly. 57: 20–30.
- Kaufman, Andrew L. (1998). Cardozo. ISBN 0-674-09645-2.
- Knox, John (2002). Dennis J. Hutchinson; David J. Garrow (eds.). The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox: a Year in the Life of a Supreme Court Clerk in FDR's Washington. ISBN 978-0-226-44862-6. Archivedfrom the original on 2015-07-16. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
- Mason, Alpheus Thomas (1964). William Howard Taft: Chief Justice. London: Oldbourne.
- Pearson, Drew; Allen, Robert S. (1936). The Nine Old Men. New York: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, Inc.
- Pringle, Henry F. (1939). The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. Vol. 2. New York: Farrack and Rinehart, Inc.
- Houghton Mifflin.
- Warner, Hoyt Landon (1959). The Life of Mr. Justice Clarke. Cleveland, OH: Western Reserve University Press.