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Powell had a fairly conservative record in deciding cases, but joined the Court's four liberal Justices to declare the law unconstitutional. Powell was the swing vote in Bowers v. Hardwick , 478 U.S. 186 (1986), in which the Court upheld Georgia's sodomy laws .
During his Supreme Court career (1972-1987)—a time when the panel was in transition from its liberal Warren epoch to its conservative reorientation under the leadership of Chief Justice William Rehnquist—Powell provided a reliable vote for corporate causes.
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Apr 2, 2024 · Powell was one of the more conservative members of the court during the 1970s and early ’80s, but he came to occupy a key centrist position as Pres. Ronald Reagan’s appointments shifted the court’s composition in a conservative direction. Powell took a moderate-to-liberal stance on such issues as legalized abortion (e.g., he supported ...
Aug 4, 2023 · Lewis F. Powell Jr. (1907–1998), who served on the Supreme Court from 1972 to 1987, was a thoughtful, pragmatic, and conciliatory justice. He was basically conservative on matters of crime and law enforcement but a liberal on First Amendment matters concerning separation of church and state.
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Powell was not easily labeled as conservative or liberal, and he often acted as the swing vote in important cases. Among his more liberal stances, Powell voted in favor of legalizing abortion in the United States in Roe v. Wade (1973), which he supported numerous times over the next fifteen years.
The graphs show that since the 1938 term every chief justice (black lines), except Earl Warren and John Roberts (since about 2020), has had a more conservative ideological lean than the median justice on the Court. Career liberal voting percentage by issue area from 1946–2017
Read about how U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell got to the Court, including his education, career, and confirmation process.
