Edward H. Levi
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Edward Hirsch Levi (June 26, 1911–March 7, 2000) was an American academic leader, scholar and statesman.
Levi was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son and grandson of rabbis. He received his undergraduate degree Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago in 1932 and later his J.D. at the same institution in 1935. The following year he was named an assistant professor of law at UChicago and was admitted to the Illinois bar. He earned a J.S.D. from Yale University, where he was also a Sterling Fellow in 1938.
During World War II he served as a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. In 1945, he returned to the University of Chicago Law School and was named dean of the law school in 1950. In 1950, he also worked as chief counsel to a Congressional subcommittee, specifically the Subcommittee on Monopoly Power of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. He became he resigned as law school dean and became provost of the university in 1962.
He was a member of the White House Central Group on Domestic Affairs in 1964, the White House Task Force on Education from 1966 to 1967 and the President's Task Force on Priorities in Higher Education from 1969 to 1970.
He became Chicago's president in 1968, serving until 1975, when President Gerald R. Ford appointed him 71st Attorney General of the United States.
During his term as Attorney General, he issued a set of guidelines (in 1976) to limit the activities of the FBI. These guidelines required the FBI to show evidence of a crime before using secret police techniques like wiretaps or entering someone's home without warning. These guidelines were replaced by new ones issued in 1983 by Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, William French Smith.
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 at Stanford University Law School from 1977 to 1978.
He was the author of An Introduction to Legal Reasoning, which was first published in 1949 and his speeches were collected in Point of View: Talks on Education.
He was a trustee of the University of Chicago and the MacArthur Foundation. He was a chairman and a member of the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility.
He died in Chicago of Alzheimer's disease in 2000.
| Preceded by: William B. Saxbe | United States Attorney General 1975–1977 | Succeeded by: Griffin B. Bell |