Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Lewis F. Powell Jr. | |
---|---|
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
In office January 7, 1972 – June 26, 1987[1] | |
Nominated by | Richard Nixon |
Preceded by | Hugo Black |
Succeeded by | Anthony Kennedy |
Chairman of Virginia State Board of Education | |
In office 1968–1969 | |
88th President of American Bar Association | |
In office 1964–1965 | |
Preceded by | Walter Early Craig |
Succeeded by | Edward W. Kuhn |
Chairman of Richmond School Board | |
In office 1952–1961 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. September 19, 1907 Suffolk, Virginia, U.S. |
Died | August 25, 1998 Richmond, Virginia, U.S. | (aged 90)
Resting place | Hollywood Cemetery |
Political party | Democratic[2] |
Spouse |
Josephine Pierce Rucker
(m. 1936; died 1996) |
Children | 4 |
Education | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1942–1945 |
Rank | Colonel |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards | Bronze Star Legion of Merit Croix de Guerre |
Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. (September 19, 1907 – August 25, 1998) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1987.
Born in Suffolk, Virginia, he graduated from both the Washington and Lee University School of Law and Harvard Law School and served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He worked for Hunton & Williams, a large law firm in Richmond, Virginia, focusing on corporate law and representing clients such as the Tobacco Institute. His 1971 Powell Memorandum became the blueprint for the rise of the American conservative movement and the formation of a network of influential right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Powell to succeed Associate Justice Hugo Black. He retired from the Court during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, and was eventually succeeded by Anthony Kennedy.
His tenure largely overlapped with that of Chief Justice
Early life and education
Powell was born in Suffolk, Virginia, the son of Mary Lewis (Gwathmey) and Louis Franklin Powell.
Powell then attended Washington and Lee University School of Law and in 1931 graduated first in his class. He received a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1932,[4] wrote a LL.M. thesis entitled "Relation between the Virginia Court of Appeals and the State Corporation Commission",[5] and was one of two U.S. Supreme Court justices to have earned an LL.M. degree.[6]
He was elected president of the student body as an undergraduate with the help of Mosby Perrow Jr., and the two served together on the Virginia State Board of Education in the 1960s.[7] Powell was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and the Sigma Society.[8] At a leadership conference, he met Edward R. Murrow, and they became close friends.[9]
In 1936, he married Josephine Pierce Rucker with whom he had three daughters and one son. She died in 1996.
Career
Military service, 1939–1945
During World War II, he first tried to join the
In August 1943, he was assigned to the Intelligence staff of the Army Air Forces in
Powell was assigned to the
Powell advanced through the ranks to
Legal career
In 1941, Powell served as Chairman of the American Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division.[13]
Powell was a partner for more than a quarter of a century at Hunton, Williams, Gay, Powell and Gibson, a large Virginia law firm, with its primary office in Richmond, now known as Hunton Andrews Kurth. Powell practiced primarily in the areas of corporate law, especially in the fields of mergers and acquisitions and railroad litigation.
From 1961 to 1962 Powell served as Chair of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Economics of Law Practice, which later evolved into the ABA Law Practice Division. During his tenure as chair of the committee, The Lawyers Handbook was first published and distributed to all attorneys who joined the ABA that year. In its preface, Powell wrote, "The basic concept of freedom under law, which underlies our entire structure of government, can only be sustained by a strong and independent bar. It is plainly in the public interest that the economic health of the legal profession be safeguarded. One of the means toward this end is to improve the efficiency and productivity of lawyers."[14]
From 1964 to 1965 he was elected President of the ABA. Powell led the way in attempting to provide legal services to the poor, and he made a key decision to cooperate with the federal government's Legal Services Program. Powell was also involved in the development of Colonial Williamsburg, where he was both a trustee and general counsel. From 1964 until his court appointment in 1971 he was a board member of
Virginia government, 1951–1970
Powell played an important role in local community affairs. From 1951 he served on the Richmond School Board and was its chairman from 1952 to 1961. Powell presided over the school board at a time when the Commonwealth of Virginia was locked in a campaign of defiance against the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which desegregated public schools. Powell's law firm, although not Powell himself, represented one of the defendant school districts in Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, which was consolidated later into Brown.
The Richmond School Board had no authority at the time to force integration, however, as control over attendance policies had been transferred to the state government. Powell, like most white Southern leaders of his day, did not speak out against the state's defiance, but fostered a close relationship with many black leaders, such as
From 1961 to 1969, Powell served on the Virginia Board of Education; he was chairman from 1968 to 1969.[15]
Powell Memorandum, 1971
On August 23, 1971, prior to accepting Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court, Powell was commissioned by his neighbor
The memo called for corporate America to become more aggressive in molding society's thinking about business, government, politics and law in the US. It inspired wealthy heirs of earlier American industrialists, the
The Powell Memorandum ultimately came to be a blueprint for the rise of the
Powell argued, "The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism came from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians." In the memorandum, Powell advocated "constant surveillance" of textbook and television content, as well as a purge of left-wing elements. He named consumer advocate Nader as the chief antagonist of American business. Powell urged conservatives to undertake a sustained media-outreach program, including funding neoliberal scholars, publishing books, papers, popular magazines, and scholarly journals, and influencing public opinion.[24][25]
This memo foreshadowed a number of Powell's court opinions, especially First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, which shifted the direction of First Amendment law by declaring that corporate financial influence of elections by independent expenditures should be protected with the same vigor as individual political speech. Much of the future Court opinion in
Although written confidentially for Sydnor at the Chamber of Commerce, it was discovered by
Supreme Court tenure, 1972–1987
In 1969, Nixon asked him to join the Supreme Court, but Powell turned him down. In 1971, Nixon asked him again. Powell was unsure, but Nixon and his Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, persuaded him that joining the Court was his duty to the nation.[28] One of the primary concerns that Powell had was the effect leaving his law firm and joining the high court would have on his personal financial status, as he enjoyed a very lucrative private practice at his law firm.[citation needed] Another of Powell's major concerns was that as a corporate attorney, he would be unfamiliar with many of the issues that would come before the Supreme Court, which, as now, heard very few corporate law cases. Powell feared that would place him at a disadvantage and make it unlikely that he would be able to influence his colleagues.
Nixon nominated Powell and William Rehnquist to the Court on the same day, October 21, 1971.[29] Powell took over the seat of Hugo Black after being confirmed by the Senate 89–1 on December 6, 1971 (the lone "nay" came from Oklahoma Democrat Fred R. Harris).[30] On the day of Powell's swearing-in, when Rehnquist's wife Nan asked Josephine Powell if this was the most exciting day of her life, Josephine said, "No, it is the worst day of my life. I am about to cry."[31]
Lewis Powell served from January 7, 1972, until June 26, 1987, when he retired from the Court.[32]
Powell was among the 7–2 majority who legalized
Powell, who dissented in the case of
His opinion in
In the controversial case of Snepp v. U.S. (1980), the Court issued a
Powell wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978), which overturned a Massachusetts law restricting corporate contributions to referendum campaigns not directly related to their business.[37]
Powell joined the 5–4 majority opinion in Plyler v. Doe, holding that a Texas law forbidding undocumented immigrant children from public education was unconstitutional.[38] Powell had a fairly conservative record in deciding cases, but joined the Court's four liberal Justices to declare the law unconstitutional.
Powell was the swing vote in
Powell also expressed post-retirement regret over his majority opinion in McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), where he voted to uphold the death penalty against a study that demonstrated that, except as punishment for the most violent of crimes, murderers sentenced for killing white victims were up to forty times more likely to receive the death penalty than people who killed black victims. In an interview with his biographer, he stated that he would abolish the death penalty altogether.[43]
Retirement and death, 1987–1998
Powell was nearly 80 years old when he retired from his position as Supreme Court justice in June 1987.[1] His career on the bench was described by Gerald Gunther, a professor of constitutional law at Stanford Law School, as "truly distinguished" because of his "qualities of temperament and character," which "made it possible for him, more than any contemporary, to perform his tasks in accordance with the modest, restrained, yet creative model of judging."[44]
He was succeeded by Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy was the third nominee for his position. The first,
Following his retirement from the high court, he sat regularly on various
In 1990, Douglas Wilder asked Powell to swear him in as governor of Virginia, and the first elected African-American governor in the United States.[45]
Powell died at his home in the Windsor Farms area of Richmond, Virginia, of pneumonia, at 4:30 in the morning of August 25, 1998, at the age of 90. He is buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.
Legacy
In her 2002 book, The Majesty of the Law, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote, "For those who seek a model of human kindness, decency, exemplary behavior, and integrity, there will never be a better man."
Powell's personal and official papers were donated to his alma mater, Washington and Lee University School of Law, where they are open for research, subject to certain restrictions. A wing at Sydney Lewis Hall, home of W&L Law, which houses his papers, is named for him.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law an act of Congress renaming the Federal courthouse at Richmond, Virginia, in his honor, the Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse.
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 1)
- List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Rehnquist Court
References
- ^ a b "Members of the Supreme Court of the United States". Supreme Court of the United States. Archived from the original on April 29, 2010. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
- ^ Biskupic, Joan; Barbash, Fred (August 26, 1998). "Retired Justice Lewis Powell Dies at 90". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2015 – via oup.com.
- ^ Timothy L. Hall, Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary Archived March 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, 2001, page 393
- ^ Lewis F. Powell Jr., Relation between the Virginia Court of Appeals and the State Corporation Commission, n.p.,. 1932
- ^ Biographical encyclopedia of the Supreme Court : the lives and legal philosophies of the justices / edited by Melvin I. Urofsky. Washington, D.C. : CQ Press, c2006.
- ^ Mosby G. Perrow Jr. Obituary--"The Daily Advance," Lynchburg, VA May 31, 1973.
- ^ John Calvin Jeffries, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Archived March 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, 2001, page 31
- ^ Norman Finkelstein, With Heroic Truth: The Life of Edward R. Murrow Archived March 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, 2005, page 36
- ^ Bennett 2019, p. 36.
- ^ Jeffries 1994, p. 102.
- ^ John Calvin Jeffries, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Archived March 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, 2001, pages 60-114
- ^ A.B.A., YLD Directory, 1997-1998, p. 18.
- ^ "American Bar Association Law Practice Division Leadership Directory 2013-2014". Archived from the original on September 20, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-8160-4194-7.
lewis powell virginia board of education.
- ^ a b c d e f Mayer, Jane (2016-01-19). Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (Kindle Locations 1381-1382). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
- ^ Powell, Lewis F. Jr. (August 23, 1971). "Attack of American Free Enterprise System". PBS. Archived from the original on January 4, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-751964-6.
- ^ Charlie Cray (23 August 2011). The Lewis Powell Memo - Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy Archived January 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Greenpeace. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ Moyers, Bill (November 2, 2011). "How Wall Street Occupied America". The Nation. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
- ISBN 0199283273p. 43.
- .
- ISBN 978-1-5107-6913-7.
- ^ Chris Hedges (5 April 2010). How the Corporations Broke Ralph Nader and America, Too Archived January 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Truthdig. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ^ Radford, Phil (November 6, 2019). "Powell Memorandum: Plan for Corporate Power". Progressive Power Lab. Archived from the original on November 10, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
- ^ Hightower, Jim, How the right wing captured the Supreme Court, How to Capture the Court, Hightower Lowdown, March 31, 2022
- ISBN 978-0-691-14916-5. Archivedfrom the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-380-52183-8.
- ^ Nixon, Richard (October 21, 1971). "Address to the Nation Announcing Intention To Nominate Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist To Be Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States". The American Presidency Project. University of California, Santa Barbara. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
- ^ 1971 Congressional Record, Vol. 117, Page 44857 (December 6, 1971)
- ^ Jeffries 1994, p. 1.
- ^ Jeffries 1994.
- ^ Conn, Steven (March 4, 2013). "Rob Portman, Nancy Reagan and the Empathy Deficit". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
- ^ Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 601 (1977) (Powell, J., concurring and dissenting).
- ^ a b Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 603 (1977) (Powell, J., concurring and dissenting).
- ^ Snepp, Frank (1999). Irreparable Harm: A Firsthand Account of How One Agent Took On the CIA in an Epic Battle Over Secrecy and Free Speech. New York: Random House. pp. 349–350.
- ^ First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765 (1978).
- ^ Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982).
- ^ Mencimer, Stephanie (July–August 2001). "High Court Homophobia". The Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on September 20, 2005.
- ^ Hentoff, Nat (December 16–22, 1998). "Infamous Sodomy Law Struck Down". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on March 11, 2003.
- ISBN 978-0-465-01514-6. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
- ^ "Paul M. Smith". Georgetown Law School. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
- ^ Jeffries 1994, p. 451.
- ^ Freeman, Anne Hobson: The Style of a Law Firm (1989), Algonquin Books, p. 193.
- ^ Greenhouse, Linda (August 26, 1998). "Lewis Powell, Crucial Centrist Justice, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 14, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
Bibliography
- Bennett, John (2019). "Reaping The Whirlwind: The norm of reciprocity and the law of aerial bombardment during World War II" (PDF). Melbourne Journal of International Law. 20: 1–44.
- Jeffries, John C Jr (1994). Justice Lewis F Powell, Jr: A biography. Charles Scribner's Sons.
External links
- Lewis F. Powell Jr. at IMDb
- FBI file on Lewis F. Powell, Jr. at vault.fbi.gov
- Appearances on C-SPAN