Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. (September 19, 1907–August 25, 1998) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He developed a reputation as a judicial moderate, and was known as a master of compromise and consensus-building. He was also widely well-regarded by contemporaries due to his personal good manners and politeness.

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• Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids.
  • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978).

• The Court is perhaps one of the last citadels of jealously preserved individualism. For the most part, we function as nine, small independent law firms.
  • Los Angeles Times (September 10, 1981).

• I think I probably made a mistake in the Hardwick case... I do think it was inconsistent in a general way with Roe. When I had the opportunity to reread the opinions a few months later, I thought the dissent had the better of the arguments.
  • At NYU Law School, October 18, 1990; after retirement from the Court, reflecting on his vote in Bowers v. Hardwick to uphold laws making homosexual sex a crime for which people could be imprisoned. Reported in Nat Hentoff, "Infamous Sodomy Law Struck Down", The Village Voice, December 22nd, 1998.