reclaimdemocracy | Introduction - In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the
boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor,
Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was
dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by
President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long
after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a
liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when
he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. Anderson
cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the Supreme Court to
put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business interests.”
Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and
corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a
powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and
beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or
inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan
Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in
Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began
paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan
Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.
Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education,
shifting values, and movement-building — a focus we share, though often
with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)
So did Powell’s political views influence his judicial decisions? The
evidence is mixed. Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege
and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti,
a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment “right” for
corporations to influence ballot questions. On social issues, he was a
moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.
