Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Anthony Kennedy the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and sworn in on February 18, 1988. After the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, he was the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court's 5–4 decisions. Born in Sacramento, California, Kennedy took over his father's legal practice in Sacramento after graduating from Harvard Law School. In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed Kennedy to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In November 1987, after two failed attempts at nominating a successor to Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., President Reagan nominated Kennedy to the Supreme Court. Kennedy won unanimous confirmation from the United States Senate in February 1988. Following the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016, Kennedy became the Senior Associate Justice of the Court; he remained the Senior Associate Justice until his July 2018 retirement. Kennedy retired during the presidency of Donald Trump and was succeeded by his former law clerk, Brett Kavanaugh. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Kennedy authored the majority opinion in several important cases, including Boumediene v. Bush, Citizens United v. FEC, and four gay rights cases the United States (Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, and In office Obergefell v. Hodges). He also co-authored the plurality opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. February 18, 1988 – July 31, 2018 Nominated by Ronald Reagan Contents Preceded by Lewis F. Powell Jr. Early life and education Succeeded by Brett Kavanaugh Early career Judge of the United States Court of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Supreme Court of the United States In office Nomination and confirmation May 30, 1975 – February 18, 1988 Tenure and analysis Conservative criticism Nominated by Gerald Ford Internationalism Preceded by Charles Merton Merrill Jurisprudence Abortion Succeeded by Pamela Ann Rymer Capital punishment Personal details Environment Gay rights and homosexuality Born Anthony McLeod Kennedy Gun issues July 23, 1936 Habeas corpus Religious liberty Sacramento, California, U.S. Super PACs Spouse(s) Mary Davis (m. 1963) Other issues Children 3 Public speaking and teaching Personal life Education Stanford University (BA) See also Harvard University (LLB) Notes London School of References Economics Further reading Signature External links Military service Early life and education Allegiance United States Branch/service United States Army Kennedy was born and raised in an Irish Catholic family in Sacramento, California.[1] He was the son of Anthony J. Kennedy, an attorney with a Years of 1961–1962 reputation for influence in the California State Legislature, and Gladys (née service McLeod), who participated in many local civic activities.[2] As a boy, Kennedy came into contact with prominent politicians of the day, such as Unit California Army National California Governor and future Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren. As a young man, Kennedy served as a page in the California State Guard Senate. Kennedy attended C. K. McClatchy High School, where he was an honors student and graduated in 1954.[3][4] Following in his mother's footsteps, Kennedy enrolled at Stanford University where he developed an interest in constitutional law. After spending his senior year at the London School of Economics, Kennedy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.[5] Kennedy then attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Laws in 1961.[6] Early career Kennedy was in private practice in San Francisco from 1961 to 1963. In 1963, following his father's death, he took over his father's Sacramento practice, which he operated until 1975.[3] From 1965 to 1988, he was a Professor of Constitutional Law at McGeorge School of Law, at the University of the Pacific.[5] During Kennedy's time as a California law professor and attorney, he helped California Governor Ronald Reagan draft a state tax proposal.[3] Kennedy has served in numerous positions during his career, including the California Army National Guard in 1961 and the board of the Federal Judicial Center from 1987 to 1988. He also served on two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States: the Advisory Panel on Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial Activities (subsequently renamed the Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct) from 1979 to 1987, and the Committee on Pacific Territories from 1979 to 1990, which he chaired from 1982 to 1990.[7] U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit On March 3, 1975, upon Reagan's recommendation,[3] President Gerald Ford nominated Kennedy to the seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that had been vacated by Charles Merton Merrill. Kennedy was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 20 and received his commission on March 24, 1975.[8] Supreme Court of the United States Nomination and confirmation On November 11, 1987, President Reagan nominated Kennedy to the Supreme Court seat vacated by Lewis F. Powell Jr., who had announced his retirement in late June.[9] In July, Reagan nominated Robert Bork, who was rejected 42—58 by the Senate on October 23.[10] The President’s next nominee, Douglas Ginsburg,[11][12] withdrew his name from consideration on November 7 after admitting to marijuana use,[13] and Senate Judiciary Committee member Patrick Leahy said that if Reagan’s next nominee was unacceptable to Senate Democrats,[a] they President Reagan and Kennedy would refuse hearings for any candidate until after the 1988 presidential election[15] – a meeting in the Oval Office on precursor to Mitch McConnell’s refusal in 2016, twenty-eight years later, to hold hearings for November 11, 1987 Merrick Garland. Kennedy was then subjected to an unprecedentedly thorough investigation of his background,[16] which he easily passed. In a Ninth Circuit dissent that Kennedy wrote before joining the Supreme Court, he criticized police for bribing a child into showing them where the child's mother hid drugs. Considering such conduct offensive and destructive of the family, Kennedy wrote that "indifference to personal liberty is but the precursor of the state's hostility to it."[17] Kennedy wrote an article the year before, however, about judicial restraint, and the following excerpt from it was read aloud at his confirmation hearing: One can conclude that certain essential, or fundamental, rights should exist in any just society. It does not follow that each of those essential rights is one that we as judges can enforce under the written Constitution. The Due Process Clause is not a guarantee of every right that should inhere in an ideal system. Many argue that a just society grants a right to engage in homosexual conduct. If that view is accepted, the Bowers decision in effect says the State of Georgia has the right to make a wrong decision—wrong in the sense that it violates some people's views of rights in a just society. We can extend that slightly to say that Georgia's right to be wrong in matters not specifically controlled by the Constitution is a necessary component of its own political processes. Its citizens have the political liberty to direct the governmental process to make decisions that might be wrong in the ideal sense, subject to correction in the ordinary political process.[18] Kennedy said about Griswold v. Connecticut, a privacy case about the use of contraceptives, "I really think I would like to draw the line and not talk about the Griswold case so far as its reasoning or its result."[19] He also discussed "a zone of liberty, a zone of protection, a line that's drawn where the individual can tell the Government, 'Beyond this line you may not go.'"[20][21] His hearings before the Senate judiciary committee began on December 14,[22][23] and lasted just three consecutive days.[24] When the Senate voted on Kennedy's nomination, he received bipartisan support. Maureen Hoch of PBS wrote that he "virtually sailed through the confirmation process and was widely viewed by conservatives and liberals alike as balanced and fair".[25] The U.S. Senate confirmed him on February 3, 1988, by a vote of 97 to 0.[21] Absent from the vote were three Democrats: Paul Simon and Al Gore were campaigning and Joe Biden was ill.[26] Attorney General Edwin Meese presented Kennedy's commission to the Court in a swearing-in ceremony on February 18, 1988.[27] Tenure and analysis Although appointed by a Republican president, Kennedy was not easily pigeonholed ideologically; he had a reputation for looking at cases individually instead of deciding them on the basis of a rigid ideology.[3] Vanity Fair quoted several former Supreme Court clerks as indicating that they believe Kennedy was often swayed by the opinions of his clerks, including his ruling on Roe v Wade.[28] One clerk derisively stated that "the premise is that he can't think by himself, and that he can be manipulated by someone in his second year of law school". This notion also led the Federalist Society to target Kennedy with more conservative clerks, believing this would make Kennedy more conservative. Two of his former clerks, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, eventually became Supreme Court justices. Conservative pundit