Edward H. Levi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 71stUnited States Attorney General | |
| In office February 2, 1975 – January 20, 1977 | |
| President | Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | William B. Saxbe |
| Succeeded by | Griffin Bell |
| 7th President of theUniversity of Chicago | |
| In office 1968–1975 | |
| Preceded by | George Beadle |
| Succeeded by | John T. Wilson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edward Hirsch Levi (1911-06-26)June 26, 1911 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | March 7, 2000(2000-03-07) (aged 88) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Kate Levi |
| Children | 3, includingJohn,David |
| Education | University of Chicago (AB,JD) Yale University (JSD) |
Edward Hirsch Levi (June 26, 1911 – March 7, 2000) was an American legal scholar and academic. He served as dean of theUniversity of Chicago Law School from 1950 to 1962, as the8th president of theUniversity of Chicago from 1968 to 1975, and then asUnited States Attorney General from 1975 to 1977 under PresidentGerald Ford. Levi is regularly cited as the "model of a modern attorney general",[1][2][3] the "greatest lawyer of his time",[4] and is credited with restoring order afterWatergate.[5] He is considered, along with Yale'sWhitney Griswold, the greatest of postwar American university presidents.[6]
A native of Chicago, Levi graduated from theUniversity of Chicago andYale University. He served as a special assistant to the U.S.Attorney General during World War II before returning to the University of Chicago Law School, where he was later named dean. After leaving government service in the Ford administration, Levi returned to teaching in Chicago.
Levi was born inChicago, the son of Elsa B. (née Hirsch) and Gerson B. Levi, a rabbi from Scotland.[7][8][9] His maternal grandfather was Reform rabbiEmil Gustav Hirsch, son of the German philosopher and rabbiSamuel Hirsch. He received his A.B.Phi Beta Kappa fromthe undergraduate college of theUniversity of Chicago in 1932, and later his J.D. at theUniversity of Chicago Law School in 1935. The following year he was named an assistant professor of law at theLaw School and was admitted to the Illinois bar. He earned aJ.S.D. fromYale Law School,[10] where he was also a Sterling Fellow in 1938.
DuringWorld War II he served as a special assistant to theAttorney General of the United States. In 1945, he returned to theUniversity of Chicago Law School and was named dean of the law school in 1950. In 1950, he also worked as chiefcounsel for the Subcommittee on Monopoly Power of theU.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. He resigned as law school dean and becameprovost of the university in 1962. That same year, he was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[11]
He was a member of theWhite House Central Group on Domestic Affairs in 1964, theWhite House Task Force on Education from 1966 to 1967 and thePresident's Task Force on Priorities in Higher Education from 1969 to 1970.
He became the University of Chicago's president in 1968, serving until 1975, when PresidentGerald R. Ford appointed him 71st Attorney General of the United States. Levi was the first Jewish Attorney General of the United States. During his presidency of the University of Chicago he refused to call the Chicago City Police to evict students occupying the university administrative building.
During his term as Attorney General, he issued a set of guidelines (in 1976) to limit the activities of theFBI. These guidelines required the FBI to show evidence of a crime before using secret police techniques likewiretaps or entering someone's home without warning. These guidelines were replaced by new ones issued in 1983 byRonald Reagan's Attorney General,William French Smith. He urged President Ford to appointRobert Bork, who was his former student and Solicitor General, or fellow ChicagoanJohn Paul Stevens to theUnited States Supreme Court, and Ford followed his advice.[12][13] Levi later testified in support of Bork at his confirmation hearing.[14] Serving under him, in various high staff positions, were such people asRudolph Giuliani,Robert Bork,Antonin Scalia,Rex E. Lee, andArthur Raymond Randolph.[15]
Levi filed a lawsuit preventing the formation of theWestheimer Independent School District, a proposed school district in Texas that was to break away from theHouston Independent School District, on the grounds of theU.S. Voting Rights Act as his last official action before leaving his post as Attorney General.[16]
After his term as Attorney General, he returned to teaching at the University of Chicago's Law School and College. He was a visiting professor atStanford University Law School from 1977 to 1978. He was the author ofAn Introduction to Legal Reasoning, which was first published in 1949 and his speeches were collected inPoint of View: Talks on Education. He was also a trustee of the University of Chicago and theMacArthur Foundation, and was a chairman and a member of the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility. He was a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[17]
Levi married Kate Sulzberger (formerly Hecht) in 1946.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] They had three sons,John Gerson,David Frank, andMichael Edward: John is a prominent attorney inSidley Austin's Chicago office and served as chair of the board of directors of theLegal Services Corporation; David is a former U.S. Attorney and federal judge in theEastern District of California and 14th dean ofDuke Law School; Michael is a scientist in both particle physics and cosmology at theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Levi died from complications ofAlzheimer's disease in Chicago on March 7, 2000, aged 88.[5]
In 2005, the Justice Department commemorated the 30th anniversary of his appointment as Attorney General with a ceremony and creation of the Edward H. Levi Award for Outstanding Professionalism and Exemplary Integrity.[26]
The Award was established to pay tribute to the memory and achievements of Mr. Levi, whose career as an attorney, law professor and dean, and public servant exemplified these qualities in the best traditions of the Department. Friends and former colleagues, including former Secretary of DefenseDonald H. Rumsfeld; U.S. Supreme Court Associate JusticesJohn Paul Stevens andAntonin Scalia; former Attorney GeneralNicholas Katzenbach; and former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge and Solicitor GeneralRobert H. Bork, gathered to honor Mr. Levi.[27]
The University of Chicago's primary administration building, holding the offices of the President and Provost, was renamed the Edward H. Levi Hall in 2013. A portrait of Levi hangs in the lobby of the building.[28]
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of the University of Chicago 1968–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Attorney General Served under:Gerald Ford 1975–1977 | Succeeded by |
