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Justice Lewis F. Powell:: A Biography
Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr . is an absorbing and readable biography of one of the most important Supreme Court Justices since World War II.
690 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 22, 2014
This one very dense book.
Like many Supreme Court biographies, it is really divided into two parts. The first part is about Powell's pre-Court life and there is a lot more fact-displaying and a lot less critical thinking. The parts about Powell on the bench are really stylized essays. In part, this is driven by the common decision to break apart his judicial career by subject. This seems like a somewhat false way of classifying a career because Powell would have been confronted with multiple issues at the same time. But here Jefferies makes it work very well by making his own separate points and skillfully drawing larger themes about Powell's thinking.
One thing it misses, which does not fit at all well with describing Powell as a liberal's conservative and a Solomnic babysplitter is the famous "Lewis Powell memo." Right now when you type in "Lewis Powell," t eh Google suggests "Lewis Powell memo." So either Jeffries should have written about it or all the folks who consider it important are wrong. But a hint of this Lewis Powell shows up at the end when the author suggests that it might be important fro Powell to retire before Reagan leaves office so that he does not get replaced by a liberal.
There's no question that if you are interested in Lewis Powell, you should read this book.
Like many Supreme Court biographies, it is really divided into two parts. The first part is about Powell's pre-Court life and there is a lot more fact-displaying and a lot less critical thinking. The parts about Powell on the bench are really stylized essays. In part, this is driven by the common decision to break apart his judicial career by subject. This seems like a somewhat false way of classifying a career because Powell would have been confronted with multiple issues at the same time. But here Jefferies makes it work very well by making his own separate points and skillfully drawing larger themes about Powell's thinking.
One thing it misses, which does not fit at all well with describing Powell as a liberal's conservative and a Solomnic babysplitter is the famous "Lewis Powell memo." Right now when you type in "Lewis Powell," t eh Google suggests "Lewis Powell memo." So either Jeffries should have written about it or all the folks who consider it important are wrong. But a hint of this Lewis Powell shows up at the end when the author suggests that it might be important fro Powell to retire before Reagan leaves office so that he does not get replaced by a liberal.
There's no question that if you are interested in Lewis Powell, you should read this book.
February 5, 2017
The author taught my Federal Courts course last fall. He is the perfect person to write a biography of Justice Powell, given how similar he is to the subject (Virginian, military experience, clerked for Powell, brilliant enough to have replaced Powell on SCOTUS had he felt like it).
Each of the essay chapters on a constitutional issue contained golden nuggets concisely summarizing everything law professors spend entire semesters trying to impart about Constitutional Law. Jeffries can distill an entire semester of what teaching the Socratic method accomplishes into paragraph form. You also really get a feel for how non-originalist judges decide important cases: 1) what do I personally want? 2) what do the other eight on the court want, and what does precedent say? 3) how far do I have to compromise on #1 to be in the majority?
The only downside to this book was that Justice Powell had a rather boring life before his appointment compared with Justices like Clarence Thomas or RBG. Casual readers without personal ties to Virginia are advised to skim the book's first half.
Each of the essay chapters on a constitutional issue contained golden nuggets concisely summarizing everything law professors spend entire semesters trying to impart about Constitutional Law. Jeffries can distill an entire semester of what teaching the Socratic method accomplishes into paragraph form. You also really get a feel for how non-originalist judges decide important cases: 1) what do I personally want? 2) what do the other eight on the court want, and what does precedent say? 3) how far do I have to compromise on #1 to be in the majority?
The only downside to this book was that Justice Powell had a rather boring life before his appointment compared with Justices like Clarence Thomas or RBG. Casual readers without personal ties to Virginia are advised to skim the book's first half.
May 18, 2014
This book has some of the best simple explanations I’ve read of topical Supreme Court decisions – busing, abortion, Watergate, the death penalty and affirmative action.
Justice Lewis Powell Jr., unfortunately, wasn’t the most interesting of justices and his actual biography isn’t all that gripping. What comes across is a good and decent man who, as a patrician Virginian, didn’t particularly ever question the values of the society was born into.
His approach to integration as a Richland school director is a good example of the demerits of that.
Justice Lewis Powell Jr., unfortunately, wasn’t the most interesting of justices and his actual biography isn’t all that gripping. What comes across is a good and decent man who, as a patrician Virginian, didn’t particularly ever question the values of the society was born into.
His approach to integration as a Richland school director is a good example of the demerits of that.
December 4, 2012
Well written bio of an important individual. It struck me a being a bit uncritical, as if the subject had no faults, but was informative despite that. The work of the Supreme Court is not something we think of every day, but is of great importance to our daily lives. This book illustrates both the workings of the Court and the impact it has.
April 4, 2019
Good book. But I was disappointed that the author did not deal with the so called Powell Memo.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews