The Judicial Policy of Mr. Justice Mcreynolds [electronic resource]

1964

1 online resource (252 p.)

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Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0557.

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This dissertation examines the sources and substance of the judicial policy of James Clark McReynolds who sat on the Supreme Court from 1914 to 1941, and influenced the outcome of cases involving crucial social and economic issues. Its major thesis is that McReynolds' decisions were shaped by his values and temperament and that these, in turn, derived from his acculturation. The first chapter analyzes McReynolds' earliest years: his locally prominent family, his strong-willed parents, his fundamentalist religious training, and the cultural complex of his Southern community. The second chapter studies McReynolds' years at Vanderbilt University with emphasis on the courses he took and the revealing articles he wrote as editor of the undergraduate newspaper. The third chapter discusses McReynolds' training at the University of Virginia Law School--the method of instruction, the substance of his courses, and the influence of his conservative law professor, John B. Minor. Chapters four and five consider McReynolds' matured convictions as an attorney for Nashville's industrial and social elite, as a professor of commercial law at the Vanderbilt University Law School, as a Gold Democratic candidate for Congress in the election of 1896, as a government prosecutor of the trusts, and as Woodrow Wilson's Attorney General. The next three chapters examine the dominant themes in McReynolds' judicial opinions during his twenty-six and a half years on the Supreme Court. His decisions in constitutional cases are treated in three categories: those involving property rights, civil liberties, and the federal-state relationship. A final chapter discusses McReynolds' view of the Court, the Constitution, the judicial role, and the democratic process; it also assesses the relationship between his values, his temperament, and his judicial policy.

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July 13, 2011

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 1964.

Yale University.