One of the most enduring figures in the American justice system died Monday at the age of 90. Griffin Bell made history on many fronts that shaped the way our current legal system operates today. He was the attorney general for President Jimmy Carter and is said to be one of only a few to have passed the bar exam even before graduating law school. He served in the US Army Quartermaster Corps until 1946 as well as served as a city attorney for Warner Robins, GA. One of his highest-profile cases

Former AG Griffin Bell

before entering the political arena was the investigation into E.F. Hutton & Co. in 1980 for check kiting activities. Before being sworn in as the attorney general during the Carter administration, he served as a chairman in John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960. From there, President Kennedy appointed him to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a year later.

While awaiting Senate confirmation for President Carter’s attorney general nomination, there were a few less than pleasant questions he fielded regarding his membership in private segregated clubs as well as some of his controversial decisions made while he was a federal judge. Still, he was confirmed shortly after Carter took office.

Born in 1918, it’s reported he was a son of a Georgia cotton farmer who helped build the well-known Atlanta law firm, King and Spalding. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that he returned, after his political works, to retire from this same law firm. Most recently, he was one of the few Democrats who supported President Bush’s re-election in 2004 and was also responsible for a study that criticized the FBI’s internal policies for disciplining agents. He’s quoted in this report as saying the methods for agent reprimands are “seriously flawed”.

Perhaps one of the most important contributions he made, however, was the public confidence that was restored after the Watergate scandal that he’s widely credited with. It’s said he restored professionalism by posting publicly every day each third party contact he’d made, including all contacts with those in the White House, Congress and others.

President Carter, after hearing of his death, released a statement saying he was “a trusted and enduring public figure with integrity, professionalism and charm that was greatly valued across party lines and presidential administrations.”

On a personal note, he was the first politician to ever grace Mr. Blackwell’s best dressed Americans list.