George F. McCanless

George F. McCanless (June 8, 1904 – June 4, 1992) was the Attorney General of Tennessee and a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1969 to 1974.

Early life
He was born in Morristown, Tennessee. He received a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1926 and an LL.B. in 1928, gaining admission to the bar in 1928.

Career
He practiced law in Morristown, serving as city attorney from 1933 to 1937. He served as chancellor in the Thirteenth Chancery Division from 1937 to 1938, and as Commissioner of Finance and Taxation from 1939 to 1946. He was appointed Attorney General and Reporter by the Supreme Court September 23, 1954. He was reelected to a full term in 1958 and again in 1966.

He testified before the U.S. Congress expressing his opposition to school integration and federal laws enforcing the rights of African Americans to attend schools with white students.

He was appointed by the governor to fill a seat on the Supreme Court vacated by the resignation of chief justice Hamilton S. Burnett, effective September 1, 1969. He was elected to fill the unexpired term August 6, 1970. McCanless retired from the court in 1974, one of three justices choosing not to seek reelection that year; along with the chief justice failing to gain the renomination of his party, this led to a substantial overturning of the membership of the court.

Personal life and death
McCanless died at a hospital in Nashville at the age of 87.