Lewis Powell

Senate Rejects Robert Bork Supreme Court Nomination 42-58, First Ideological Rejection in Nearly a Century

| Importance: 9/10

The United States Senate rejected President Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court by a vote of 42-58 on October 23, 1987, marking the first time in nearly a century that the Senate rejected a Supreme Court nominee primarily on the basis of ideology rather than qualifications …

Robert Bork Ronald Reagan Edward Kennedy Lewis Powell Anthony Kennedy +4 more supreme-court judicial-capture federalist-society conservative-movement antitrust-abandonment +3 more
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Corporate Lobbying Presence Quintuples in Washington, D.C.

| Importance: 8/10

By the end of the 1970s, corporate public affairs offices in Washington dramatically expanded from 100 in 1968 to over 500, with registered corporate lobbyists increasing from 175 in 1971 to nearly 2,500. This unprecedented mobilization, influenced by the Powell Memo, represented a systematic …

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Corporate Lobbying Industry Lewis Powell Fortune 500 Leadership capture-cascade corporate-lobbying washington-dc institutional-capture political-infrastructure +1 more
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Supreme Court Rules 8-0 in United States v. Nixon: President Must Surrender Tapes

| Importance: 10/10

On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 8-0 decision in United States v. Nixon, ordering President Richard Nixon to deliver sixty-four tape recordings and other subpoenaed materials related to the Watergate scandal to the federal district court. Chief Justice Warren Burger—a Nixon …

Supreme Court Warren Burger Richard Nixon Leon Jaworski Harry Blackmun +2 more watergate judicial-oversight rule-of-law executive-power constitutional-law
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John Wilkes Booth Assassinates Lincoln in Coordinated Conspiracy to Decapitate Union Government After Confederate Defeat

| Importance: 10/10

At approximately 10:20 p.m. on April 14, 1865, Confederate sympathizer and prominent actor John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head at point-blank range while Lincoln watches a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln dies the following morning at a …

John Wilkes Booth Abraham Lincoln Lewis Powell George Atzerodt David Herold +3 more assassination conspiracy confederate-sympathizers terrorism political-violence
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