Bell was being treated for complications due to pancreatic cancer, and suffered from kidney disease for years.

A spokesman for Bell's law firm, Les Zucke, says Bell died at 9:40 a.m. Monday. Bell's firm, King & Spalding, is based in Atlanta.

Carter's choice of Bell, a longtime friend, as attorney general was considered the most controversial of his Cabinet picks after the 1976 election.

At the time, the NAACP and other civil rights groups complained Bell, as a federal judge, didn't force Southern schools to integrate quickly enough. But Carter called Bell's civil rights record superb, and many black Georgians came forward to support him.