10.4.2: Supreme Court Business

Scope and content:

This subseries contains subject files about day-to-day Court administration and operation. Included here is almost a foot of files on Powell's service on the Court's budget committee. There is an equal amount of documentation concerning disqualification problems. These files deal with actual and potential conflicts of interest concerning cases that Powell might have heard as a member of the Supreme Court. The conflicts primarily involved Hunton & Williams retained clients, and companies in which Powell had investments.

A third portion of this subseries is approximately a foot of material related to the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which required detailed financial disclosure by federal judges. The resolution of conflicts between compliance with the Disqualification Act of 1974 and this newer law is documented here.

The "Word Processing Committee" files, along with the related "Linda Blandford" file, reveal the role of Justice Powell in automating the drafting and printing of opinions within the court. Powell saw to it that Ms. Blandford, a secretary in his chambers, was recognized and compensated for her role in the development of Atex, the Court's first automated information system.

There is extensive documentation of Powell's service on the committee that reviewed Supreme Court rules, and the commission that examined the workload of the National Court of Appeals system. Correspondence with Supreme Court officers such as the Chief Deputy Clerk, the Marshal's Office and the Social Secretary of the Court are also found here.

Though Justice Powell refrained from making public or private statements about Court opinions, there is a file present entitled "Correspondence as to Court Opinions." Powell's side of the correspondence is primarily to say that Justices generally do not comment on cases. See see the correspondence at 10.2.1 with such trusted friends as Colgate Darden, Paul Freund, Gerald Gunther and Anthony Lewis for substantive discussions of cases.

Access and use

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