Lewis F. Powell Jr.
E23255
Lewis F. Powell Jr. was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1972–1987) known as a pivotal moderate whose swing votes shaped landmark decisions on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and the death penalty.
All labels observed (7)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T60914 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lewis F. Powell Jr. Context triple: [Roe v. Wade, hasConcurringJustice, Lewis F. Powell Jr.]
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A.
Paul G. Kirk
Paul G. Kirk is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served as interim U.S. Senator from Massachusetts following the death of Edward M. Kennedy.
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B.
Robert Bork
Robert Bork was a conservative American jurist and legal scholar whose role in the Watergate-era "Saturday Night Massacre" and later failed Supreme Court nomination made him a highly controversial figure in U.S. legal and political history.
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C.
Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, known for his influential opinions on civil liberties, criminal justice, and obscenity law during the mid-20th century.
-
D.
Byron R. White
Byron R. White was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice known for his generally moderate-to-conservative jurisprudence and influential opinions across criminal procedure, civil rights, and federalism.
-
E.
William H. Rehnquist
William H. Rehnquist was a long-serving conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice and later Chief Justice, known for advocating federalism, limiting the reach of federal power, and opposing expansive interpretations of constitutional rights.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lewis F. Powell Jr. Target entity description: Lewis F. Powell Jr. was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1972–1987) known as a pivotal moderate whose swing votes shaped landmark decisions on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and the death penalty.
-
A.
Paul G. Kirk
Paul G. Kirk is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served as interim U.S. Senator from Massachusetts following the death of Edward M. Kennedy.
-
B.
Robert Bork
Robert Bork was a conservative American jurist and legal scholar whose role in the Watergate-era "Saturday Night Massacre" and later failed Supreme Court nomination made him a highly controversial figure in U.S. legal and political history.
-
C.
Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, known for his influential opinions on civil liberties, criminal justice, and obscenity law during the mid-20th century.
-
D.
Byron R. White
Byron R. White was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice known for his generally moderate-to-conservative jurisprudence and influential opinions across criminal procedure, civil rights, and federalism.
-
E.
William H. Rehnquist
William H. Rehnquist was a long-serving conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice and later Chief Justice, known for advocating federalism, limiting the reach of federal power, and opposing expansive interpretations of constitutional rights.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
ⓘ
human ⓘ |
| appointedBy | Richard Nixon ⓘ |
| awardReceived | Presidential Medal of Freedom ⓘ |
| barAdmission | Virginia State Bar ⓘ |
| birthName |
Lewis Franklin Powell Jr.
ⓘ
linked to:
Lewis F. Powell Jr.
|
| conflict | World War II ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1907-09-19 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 1998-08-25 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Harvard Law School
ⓘ
Washington and Lee University ⓘ Washington and Lee University School of Law ⓘ
linked to:
Washington and Lee University
|
| endTime | 1987-06-26 ⓘ |
| familyName | Powell ⓘ |
| givenName | Lewis ⓘ |
| honorificSuffix | Jr. ⓘ |
| ideology | judicial moderation ⓘ |
| knownFor |
being a swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court
ⓘ
influence on abortion rights jurisprudence ⓘ influence on affirmative action jurisprudence ⓘ influence on death penalty jurisprudence ⓘ |
| memberOf |
American Bar Association
ⓘ
Democratic Party (United States) ⓘ
linked to:
Democratic Party
Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| militaryBranch | United States Army Air Forces ⓘ |
| militaryRank | Colonel ⓘ |
| notableWork |
majority opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
ⓘ
opinion in Roe v. Wade (concurring in part) and related abortion jurisprudence ⓘ
linked to:
Roe v. Wade
pivotal votes in death penalty cases including Gregg v. Georgia ⓘ |
| numberOfChildren | 4 ⓘ |
| occupation |
corporate attorney
ⓘ
judge ⓘ lawyer ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Suffolk, Virginia, United States ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath |
Richmond, Virginia, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Richmond, Virginia
|
| politicalAlignment | moderate conservative ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
ⓘ
President of the American Bar Association ⓘ |
| precededBy |
John Marshall Harlan II
ⓘ
linked to:
John M. Harlan II
|
| religion | Presbyterianism ⓘ |
| residence |
Richmond, Virginia, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Richmond, Virginia
|
| signature | signature of Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ |
| spouse | Josephine Pierce Rucker Powell ⓘ |
| startTime | 1972-01-07 ⓘ |
| succeededBy |
Anthony Kennedy
ⓘ
linked to:
Anthony M. Kennedy
|
| workLocation |
Washington, D.C., United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Washington, D.C.
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Lewis F. Powell Jr. Description of subject: Lewis F. Powell Jr. was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1972–1987) known as a pivotal moderate whose swing votes shaped landmark decisions on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and the death penalty.
Referenced by (131)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Wisconsin v. Yoder
→
concurringOpinionBy
→
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. (joined later jurisprudentially in related contexts)
ⓘ
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority
→
joinedMajority
→
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.
ⓘ
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Lewis F. Powell Jr. United States Courthouse
→
namedForRole
→
Lewis F. Powell Jr. as Supreme Court Justice
ⓘ
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
→
majorityJustices
→
Lewis F. Powell Jr.
ⓘ
Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.
→
majorityOpinionBy
→
Lewis F. Powell Jr.
ⓘ
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
linked to: Lewis F. Powell Jr.
subject linked to:
McLeod