James Clark McReynolds served as attorney general and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. McReynolds was a very conservative justice who gained prominence for his opposition to the New Deal legislation of the 1930s and for his unprecedented number of opinions declaring acts of Congress unconstitutional. McReynolds was born on February 3, 1862 in Elkton, Kentucky, the son of a prominent surgeon. McReynolds graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1882 and then attended the University of Virginia law school, where he graduated in 1884. He established a law practice in Nashville, Tennessee, and became a successful business attorney. In 1900 he was appointed professor of law at Vanderbilt.

During the period 1886-1900, McReynolds established himself as a conservative Democrat, running unsuccessfully in 1886 for Congress despite substantial Republican support. Although a Democrat, he found favor with Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who appointed McReynolds assistant U.S. attorney general in 1903. He remained in the...