Lewis Powell

Lewis Franklin Powell
Former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court From: January 7, 1972 – June 26, 1987
Nominator	Richard Nixon
Predecessor	Hugo Black
Successor	Anthony Kennedy
Information
Party	Democrat
Religion	Presbyterian
Military Service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Service Years	1942-1945
Rank	Colonel

Lewis F. Powell Jr. (1907-1998) was appointed at the age of 64 by President Richard Nixon in 1972 to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, where he was a swing vote on controversial issues ranging from affirmative action to aid to parochial schools to homosexuality. From Virginia, where he was born and practiced law, he remained affiliated with the South and took the seat due to the retirement of another southerner, Justice Hugo Black. Powell served on the Supreme Court for only 15 years. His retirement in 1987 led to the hotly debated appointment by President Ronald Reagan of Robert Bork, who was defeated in confirmation hearings by the U.S. Senate.

His most important opinion was his concurrence in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), in which he opposed racial quotas in admissions processes but allowed the use of race as an admissions criterion.

He provided the fifth vote for the liberal wing of the court in Plyler v. Doe (1982), which required Texas to grant a free public education to the children of illegal aliens.