JUDGE OREN LEWIS DIES AT 80; NOTED FOR BLUNTNESS ON BENCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420022-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: June 14, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420022-7
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ON P~_C. A - i
Judge Oren Lewis
v
Dies at 80; Noted for
Bluntness on Bench
By Philip Smith
'Sasfltngtoh Prst Staff Writer
U.S. District Judge Oren Ritter Lewis, a
square-jawed. blunt-spoken fixture on the
federal bench in Alexandria for the past 23
years, died late Sunday night after suffering
a heart attack at his North Arlington home.
He was 80.
Court personnel said Lewis collapsed at
about 10:30 p.m. A private physician. called
to the home alerted a rescue squad. which
transported Lewis to Arlington Hospital. a
hospital spokesman said. The spokesman
said doctors were unable to revive him and
he was pronounced dead at 11:37 P.M.
The hospital spokesman said death way
due to heart failure.
Lewi- a-sumed the semi-retired status of a
senior judge in 1973 but continued to per-
form court duties almost daily. Last Friday
WASHINGTON POST
14 June 1983
older and younger judges, joined him on blunt as his own. One appellate decision
the bench, his role diminished. In the noted "glaring errors" by the judge. An-
past year he had been assigned mainly to other cited rulings it said were "manifest-
hear legal motions and one- or two-day lv erroneous.'
trials. An avid talker, Lewis prided himself on
During his tenure, Lewis presided over cutting legal arguments short, usually with
a series of important school desegregation the impatient warning to "Get on with it"
cases in Arlington, Alexandria and Prince He boasted he had taken control of the
Edward County. While he was on the court's docket in the days when he was
bench, Lewis also cleared the way for
construction of Interstate-66, and presid- alone on the bench and never lost it. In line
ed over the ci'lminai trials of the Pom- with Lewis' practice, the federal court .be
ponio brothers, who built much of the leaves behind has no appreciable backlog.
Rosslvn section of Arlington, and over Born on Oct. 7, 1902, in Seymour,
the conspiracy trial of Dr. Murdock Ind., Lewis was the grandson of a lawyer
Head, the former George Washington and the son of a judge. He moved to
University professor and founder of the Washington in 1923 when his father was
Airlie Foundation. appointed the first commissioner of the
Lewis became a legend in local legal" U.S. Court of Claims. He was a Navy
circles for controversial opinions, fueled veteran of World War I and a 1939 grad-
not only by his personal courtroom style, uate of the George Washington Uniye--
which was gruff and quixotic, but also by sits law school.
the controversial cases that came his way He worked for years in the newspaper
because of the court's jurisdiction over business, serving as a circulation manager
such sensitive federal preserves as the for the Washington Times-Herald and for
Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Hearst publications in several cities. He wa.
Agency. an owner of the Alexandria. Arlington and
He was unsympathetic toward Penta- Fairfax Journals from 1940 to 1961.
gon antiwar protesters and once jailed A former Republican Party chairman
attt.hor Norman Mailer after' the mass tin Arlington. he was in private law prac-
he was appointed to
demonstration memorialized in "Armies the he federal l 1939 bench.
of the Night," Mailer's chronicle of the .
antiwar movement. Lewis also was the in addition to his wife, Lewis is sur-
antiwar
district judge in the nation to jail an vived by two sons, Oren Jr. and Robert
air traffic controller in the strike by con- Neils Lewis, five grandchildren and a
great-granddaughter.
trollers.two years ago.
In 1978, Lewis ruled ex-CIA agent
Frank Snepp had violated a government
secrecy agreement in writing about the
fall of South Vietnam and ordered profits
from Snepp's book, "Decent Interval,"
frozen. "Nobody has got a right to di-
vu e classified information," Lewis said
from the bench. he told Snepp's ACLU
lawyer that evidence in the case "won't
make any difference.'
A federal appeals court overturned
parts of the Snepp decision, but the Su-
preme Court - in an opinion that still
stands as a bar to sus unaut orized dis-
closures - restored Lewis' ruling in full,
morning. he presided over pretrial motions
in his small. second-floor courtroom, and the
day before he attended a private lunch with
the three other federal judges assigned to Al-
exandria..
Judges and other court employes said yes-
terday that Lewis-known out of earshot as
"Roarin' Oren"-recently had appeared
healthy. fit and in the kind of feisty. outspo-
ken high spirits that. were his trademark
among lawyers and his colleagues. "He drove
me crazy. said one fellow jurist yesterday.
"I'm going to miss him.?
Despite the criticism of his courtroom
style. Lewis was described by friends and ad-
mirers as fair-minded and a champion of. the
-underdog. He was also skilled at verbal fenc-
iitg. Asked in a recent interview if he had
any vices, Lewis said, "No. The statute of
limitations has run out on all of them.'
Off the bench, Judge Lewis was an avid
gardener and golfer who liked to play
bridge with the boys - "and the girls.he
once said - and was devoted to his wife
of 57 years. Grace Wells Lewis.
A Republican appointed to the federal
bench by President Eisenhower in May
1960, Lewis held sway for a decade as the
only U.S. trial judge assigned to North-
ern Virginia. In later years, as he grew
adopting the judge's opinion as its own.
More recently, Lewis appeared to 'ru
afoul of the U.S. appeals court, in Rich-
mond with his controversial courtroom
manner and his rulings from the bench..
Earlier this year he was reversed three
times in rapid sequence, in terms as
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420022-7