Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. lived from September 19, 1907 to August 25, 1998 and 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 Washington and Lee University School of Law and Harvard Law School and served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War Two. He worked at Hunton and Williams, a large Richmond, Virginia law firm, focusing on corporate law and representing clients such as the Tobacco Institute, and his 1971 Powell Memorandum became the blueprint for the rise of the American conservative movement and 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 the late Associate Justice Hugo Black, and he retired during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, eventually succeeded by Anthony Kennedy. His tenure largely overlapped that of Chief Justice Warren Burger and Powell was often a key swing vote on the Burger Court; his majority opinions include United States v. Brignoni-Ponce in 1975, Gregg v. Georgia in 1976, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti in 1978, Solem v. Helm in 1983 and McCleskey v. Kemp in 1987, and he wrote an influential opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978, notably also joining the majority in cases such as Roe v. Wade in 1973 and Plyler v. Doe in 1982.