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Lewis F. Powell

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice

The Resume

    (September 19, 1907-August 25, 1998)
    Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1972-1987)

Why he might be annoying:

    At 64, without any judicial experience he accepted the nomination for Associate Justice.
    He initially did not want to become a Justice and only accepted the nomination because Nixon told him it was his patriotic duty to serve.
    He did not complain, as the Chairman of the Richmond School Board, when they defied the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
    He preferred being a corporate lawyer than a judge.
    He wrote the Powell Memorandum which urged corporate America to become an active player in politics and law.
    He looked like Orville Redenbacher.
    He voted consistently to maintain the death penalty but after retiring said, 'I have come to think that capital punishment should be abolished.'
    Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsberg were considered to replace him. He was finally replaced by Anthony Kennedy.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was president of the American Bar Association, the American Bar Foundation and the American College of Trial Lawyers.
    He was good friends with Edward R. Murrow.
    He worked to get legal services for the poor.
    He swore in the first black Virginia governor.
    He was a moderate on the increasingly polarized Burger Court.
    He had to be convinced by a rational argument in order to consent or dissent in a case.
    He disliked heated rhetoric and rigid interpretation of laws.
    He was known for forging many compromises on the bench.
    He was a swing Justice who would often break the 4 to 4 deadlocks between liberal and conservatives on the bench.
    He wrote the majority opinion in 'Regents of the University of California v. Bakke' that maintained affirmative action (1978).
    He was married for 60 years until is wife's death.

Credit: Captain Howdy


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 22.22% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 19 Votes: 68.42% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 26 Votes: 65.38% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 31 Votes: 64.52% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 28 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 71 Votes: 67.61% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 88 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 75 Votes: 45.33% Annoying