Powell, Lewis Franklin, Jr.

▪ 1999

      American lawyer and judge (b. Sept. 19, 1907, Suffolk, Va.—d. Aug. 25, 1998, Richmond, Va.), served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 15 years, during which he often provided a centrist viewpoint in an otherwise polarized tribunal. He cast the deciding vote on a number of landmark cases, most notably Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), which opposed strict racial quotas but upheld affirmative-action programs, allowing race to be a consideration in university admissions. Powell graduated from Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. (B.S., 1929; LL.B., 1931; LL.D., 1960), was called to the bar in 1931, and earned an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1932. He then practiced law in Richmond, becoming a partner at the firm Hunton, Williams, Gay, Powell and Gibson in 1938 and staying with that firm, with the exception of his years of World War II military service, until he joined the Supreme Court. Prior to joining the court, he also served as president of the American Bar Association (1964-65), the Virginia State Board of Education (1968-69), the American College of Trial Lawyers (1969-70), and the American Bar Foundation (1969-71). In 1971 Powell, who had in 1969 refused an offer to take a seat on the Supreme Court, accepted Pres. Richard Nixon's plea, was quickly confirmed by the Senate, and was sworn in on Jan. 7, 1972. Although Powell was generally considered conservative, he voted with the liberal bloc on a number of social issues, siding with the majority on Roe v. Wade (1973), upholding abortion rights, and on a number of later cases concerned with attempts to add restrictions to those rights. Among the decisions on which Powell's vote was pivotal were those striking down programs to aid parochial schools, Aguilar v. Felton (1985); rejecting the application of the right to privacy to consensual sex between homosexual adults, Bowers v. Hardwick (1986); and upholding the death penalty, McCleskey v. Kemp (1987). He later said that he regretted his votes on the latter two. Stating health concerns, Powell retired from the Supreme Court in June 1987, but he sat as a federal appeals court judge in Richmond until 1996.

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