Reconsidering ‘The Two Powells’

Asad Rahim

In a California Law Review paper, Asad Rahim asserts that Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.’s plurality opinion in the landmark 1978 Bakke affirmative action case was motivated more by fear of the further radicalization of college students than by the goal of greater equality. Rahim contests the idea that there were “two Powells” — the pre-court conservative and the left-leaning centrist jurist — and points to similarities in his statements from both eras.

Title: Diversity to Deradicalize

Published in: California Law Review