Justice Kennedy’s Bitter Truth

In the heady days since Anthony Kennedy unearthed a constitutional right for Americans “to define and express their identity,” the extravagance of the Supreme Court’s claim has taken some by surprise. It shouldn’t have. In finding for same-sex marriage the way he did, Justice Kennedy made official what he made inevitable a quarter-century back. That was in 1992. The occasion was a Supreme Court decision on abortion into which Mr. Kennedy inserted a new definition of liberty. Where Thomas Jefferson had grounded human liberty in self-evident...

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Justice Kennedy's Comments Stir the Tea Leaves on Obamacare

Was the justice hinting at his vote on the King v. Burwell case when he spoke to a congressional panel? A Supreme Court justice wouldn’t use a congressional hearing to signal his vote on Obamacare, would he? Justice Anthony Kennedy sent a ripple through the universe of court watchers Monday when he told lawmakers that the justices should interpret statutes without worrying about congressional gridlock. Kennedy didn’t specifically mention the Affordable Care Act, but his comments prompted immediate speculation that he will read...

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Anthony Kennedy Biography

Anthony Kennedy is an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court who was appointed by Ronald Reagan. Synopsis Born on July 23, 1936 in Sacramento, California, Anthony Kennedy went on to graduate from Harvard Law School and teach constitutional law. He joined the U.S. Court of Appeals in the mid-'70s and in 1988, after being appointed by Ronald Reagan, became a Supreme Court justice. He’s known for his conservative views while also having sided with decisions that focused on individual rights. Early Life Anthony McLeod Kennedy was the...

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REAGAN NOMINATES ANTHONY KENNEDY TO SUPREME COURT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11— President Reagan, stung by the failure of two nominations to the Supreme Court in the last three weeks, today nominated Judge Anthony M. Kennedy and expressed the hope that he could be confirmed quickly in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation.  Mr. Reagan emphasized that Judge Kennedy ''seems to be popular with many senators of varying political persuasions.''  ''The experience of the last several months has made all of us a bit wiser,'' he said. [ Transcript, page B10. ] Mr. Reagan's...

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Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Tolerance Is Seen in His Sacramento Roots

SACRAMENTO — In the fall of 1987, a package arrived on the desk of Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard law professor who had just lost a Supreme Court case on gay rights. It contained the legal opinions of Anthony M. Kennedy, a strait-laced, conservative Republican jurist from Sacramento who hardly seemed sympathetic to that cause. The package was sent by one of the most influential men in the California capital then, Gordon Schaber, a law school...

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