Today in Supreme Court History: September 19, 1907

9/19/1907: Justice Lewis Powell's birthday.

Justice Lewis Powell

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

His clerk set the gold standard for careerist cowardice.

[Cal Cetín]

He had a "right-wing" clerk?

[Dan Schiavetta]

I'm thinking of the gay clerk who stood by and watched while Powell joined the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick, where the Court held that it was o.k. to criminalize gay sex. Powell confided to the clerk that he doubted the issue was of much importance, and shrugged, "I don't know anyone who's gay." The clerk could have come out to him then and there -- a very significant "coming out", considering that a change of mind by Powell would have resulted in the Court holding otherwise. But the clerk could only say, "Of course you know gay people. You just don't know that they're gay." (Or at least that's what the clerk told us he said, years later. Clerks are such bootlicks that I doubt that he said anything.)

[Cal Cetín]

It's just as well Powell didn't vote with the good guys, because he was a fascist monster and the author of the Powell Memorandum. Why accept anything good at his hands?