When Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon as president in 1974 in the wake of Watergate, no agency of the federal government was more discredited and damaged than the Justice Department (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). One Nixon attorney general went to prison, another pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and a third resigned rather than fire a Watergate prosecutor. Many Americans saw the FBI as an enemy. The very survival of the rule of law was in doubt.
The monumental task of remaking the department and regaining public trust was given to Edward Levi, the little-known president of the University of Chicago. Ford chose him because he thought the job required someone of impeccable integrity and impartiality. Levi provided that, as well as a profound respect for the rights of citizens.
When he departed in 1977, even Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy said he “leaves a department once again characterized by integrity, intellectual honesty and commitment to equal justice”–an accomplishment whose importance can hardly be overstated.
His high standards and humane principles were no surprise to those who knew him at the University of Chicago. He attended the lab school, did his undergraduate work at the college and received a degree from the law school before becoming a law professor, dean of the law school, provost and, finally, president. Among his many achievements was helping to found the law and economics movement, one of the most influential academic developments of the last half century. With his relentless mind, intellectual rigor and devotion to reason, says current provost Geoffrey Stone, “he personified the institution.”
The University of Chicago that exists today is, to a large extent, Levi’s creation. He brought in some of the world’s best scholars, erected new buildings, and kept the school in Hyde Park at a time when there was serious talk of abandoning what was a troubled and crime-ridden neighborhood. Already respected, it became among the most eminent universities in the world.
Levi approached each of his jobs with an eye to building valuable things that would last. As attorney general, he was interviewed by a journalist, who, after hearing him explain his approach to the job, said in surprise, “It sounds like you’re making your decisions for history.” Replied Levi: “What else is there?” He left a lot for history to remember and admire.
