9 Justices Gather To Honor Powell

The Supreme Court's nine members took the extraordinary step of gathering outside Washington to pay respects Friday to Lewis F. Powell Jr., the retired justice who died last week at age 90.

Under sunny skies, the justices arrived in small groups at the Gothic-style Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Va. First to arrive were Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and O'Connor, both of whom served with Powell until he left the court in 1987, were scheduled speakers at his funeral Friday.

Powell wielded great power during his 15-year tenure on the high court because his moderate views placed him at its ideological center. But those who knew him best said he never displayed an ounce of self-importance.

O'Connor, who largely has inherited Powell's role as a pivotal swing vote in the court's most divisive cases, wept the day he announced his retirement. She later wrote, "I have known no one in my lifetime who is kinder or more courteous."

On the current Supreme Court, Stevens and Justice Antonin Scalia also served with Powell. Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer joined the court after he left it.

Retired Justice Byron R. White, 81, was expected to attend the service at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, where Powell was a longtime member; fellow retiree Harry A. Blackmun, 89, was not expected.

Powell was to be buried beside his wife, Jo, who died in 1996, in a private ceremony at Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery.

The cemetery is the last resting place of two U.S. presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler, and of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. Peter Vivian Daniel, a 19th-century Supreme Court justice, also is buried there, while John Marshall, the first great chief justice, is interred in another Richmond cemetery.

Written by Richard Carelli