book

History of the Supreme Court

21 Pages 1579 Words 1557 Views

Since the Supreme Court of the United States first convened in 1790, our country has had 112 Justices sit on the bench, 17 of which were Chief Justices (“The Court as an Institution”). Out of those Justices, there are four that have left quite an impact on not only the justice system but also on the American society. Chief Justices Taney, Warren, Roberts, and Associate Justice McReynolds led some very interesting lives, lives that many Americans still study to this day. As Justices on the Supreme Court bench they had many similarities as well as differences. Beginning with Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds, we can observe that not all the members of the Supreme Court are worthy enough for the position. He was born in Kentucky in 1862, graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1882, and received his law degree at the University of Virginia in 1884 (“James Clark McReynolds”). After teaching at Vanderbilt for three years, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General by President Theodore Roosevelt but resigned his position only 4 years later to open his own law practice in New York City. When President Woodrow Wilson was elected in 1912, he made McReynolds U.S. Attorney General, a product of McReynolds strong support during his campaign. During his reign as Attorney General he is described as being “irascible and discourteous” and “[a] difficult colleague” so in order to remove him from his cabinet President Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1914 (“Biographies of the Robes”). For the next 27 years on the bench as Associate Justice, he proved to be even more problematic. Described by many as an extremely anti- sematic, misogynistic zealot he had many odd “petty dislikes” such as “red nail polish on women, wristwatches, and tobacco”. After refusing to talk or even sign opinions from fellow Justices Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo because they were Jewish, he proved to be the most “unpleasant justice in the history of the Court”. His most notable yet anti-collaborative work as Associate Justice was when he and three other Justices struck down every aspect of the New Deal legislation after the Great Depression, earning them the nickname “the four horsemen”. McReynolds finally stepped down from office in 1941 after being widely criticized by the American public (“Biographies of the Robes”). Although not every Justice on the Supreme Court was as spiteful as McReynolds, another Justice that received ruthless criticism due largely in fact to a very controversial decision was our 5th Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. After graduating from Dickinson College at the age of 18 as Valedictorian he became an apprentice for a local judge in Maryland until he was admitted to the Bar in 1799. He practiced law for a few months but then decided to pursue a political career becoming the youngest member in the Maryland House of Delegates. After one term he went back to practic

Read Full Essay