Justice Anthony McLeod Kennedy (natural July 23, 1936) has been an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1988.

Innate inside Sacramento, California, Kennedy, a devout Roman Catholic, married Mary Davis, sustaining whom he has deuce-ace toddlers. He has there is no relation to the noted Kennedy family of American politics.

He received his B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University, another B.A. from either a London School of Economics and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School. He was inside camera practice in San Francisco, California from 1961-1963, when well as inside Sacramento, California from either 1963-1975. From either 1965 to 1988, he was a Prof of Constitutional Law at a McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific.

He has served within many positions in a period of his career, including the California Army National Guard in 1961 and the board of the Federal Judicial Center from either 1987-1988. He as well served in 2 committees of a Judicial Conference of a United States: the Advisory Panel in Financial Disclosure Reports & Judicial Activities (afterwards renamed the Advisory Committee in Codes of Conduct) from either 1979-1987, and a Committee in Pacific Territories from either 1979-1990, which he chaired from 1982-1990. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Gerald Ford in 1975.

Around 1987, Associate Justice Lewis Powell retired. President Ronald Reagan first nominated Robert Bork to replace him. Bork was deem as well conservative by the Democratic Senate, and he was non confirmed. Reagan so nominated Douglas H. Ginsburg, but Ginsburg withdrew his name amid reports of substantive prior marijuana use. Eventually, Reagan nominated Kennedy, & fallowing existence confirmed 97-0 per Senate he took his seat February 18, 1988.

Anthony Kennedy has been a moderate swing vote on the bench, typically siding by owning liberals to take a broad reading of single rights under the controversial doctrine of essential due run. Justice Kennedy has represented a crucial vote in several constitutional issues using Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Kennedy's views in issues come fairly uniform. He supports the broad reading of the "liberty" protected per Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which means he supports a constitutional perfect to abortion in essence, though he has voted to uphold many restrictions on it best, including laws to prohibit partial-birth abortions. He is "tough on crime" & opposes creating constitutional restrictions on the police force, especially inside Fourth Amendment cases involving searches for illegal drugs. He opposes affirmative action as promoting stereotypes of minorities. He besides requires the super wide watch of constitutional protection for speech under the Foremost Amendment, invalidating a congressional law prohibiting "virtual" kiddy porn inside 2004's Ashcroft v. ACLU.

Inside 1992, Kennedy joined O'Connor & David Souter to form a troika world health organization delivered the plurality opinion in the example of Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which re-affirmed in principle (though not in many details) the Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the right to abortion under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Kennedy initially voted to uphold the restrictions on abortion at issue but switched his vote during the consideration of Casey). A plurality opinion, signed jointly by trine justices appointed by anti-Roe presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, ignited a firestorm of criticism from conservatives. Kennedy, nonetheless, dissented around 2000's Stenberg v. Carhart, which struck down laws criminalizing partial-birth abortion.

Kennedy has taken a leading role within expanding constitutional protection to homosexuals. He wrote a Court's opinion in Romer v. Evans (1996) invalidating a provision in the Colorado Constitution denying homosexuals the right to bring local discrimination claims. Kennedy's opinion listed lofty rhetoric besides when controversial constitutional arguments around defense of gay rights. Within 2003, he authored the court's opinion Lawrence v. Texas which invalidated criminal prohibitions against homosexual sodomy under the United States Constitution (overturning the Court's previous contrary ruling in 1986's Bowers v. Hardwick) in an opinion filled with passionate rhetoric. Inside two lawsuits, he sided sustaining a other liberal members of the Court to form a narrow majority for his views. Lawrence besides polemically referenced international law in justifying its result.

Kennedy has besides taken a liberal approach to issues involving the death penalty. Around 2002, he joined a 6-Three opinion (Atkins v. Virginia) declaring the execution of the mentally retarded unconstitutional. He as well wrote a opinion of the court in Roper v. Simmons (2005) invalidating the execution of felons who were under 18 at time of the crime. His opinion manufactured extensive information to international law, drawing the ire of conservativist. The year late, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay called Kennedy's work "incredibly outrageous", however stopped short of calling for his impeachment.

But then, Kennedy has joined by owning Court majorities around decisions favoring states' rights and capital punishment & invalidating federal and state affirmative action programs. He too ruled by owning a majorities in the 2000 Bush v. Gore case that ceased recounts in the 2000 presidential election and ensured the victory of President George W. Bush.

In the recent Gonzales v. Raich case, he joined the liberal members of the court in permitting the federal government to prohibit the use of medical marijuana, even in states in which it is legal, thus invalidating a California law that made the use of medical marijuana legal. Many weeks late, in Kelo v. New London (2005), he joined the four more liberal Justices in supporting the local government's right to take private property for private economic development through eminent domain.

Kennedy has move slay of a bench too, calling for reform of overcrowded Western prisons within the speech prior to the American Bar Association. He lives his summers within Salzburg, Austria, where he teaches international & Our contries law at a University of Salzburg & typically attends a big annually international judges conference held there. Defending his utilize of international law, Kennedy told a Sept. Xii issue of the Up to date Yorker, "Why should world opinion care that the American Administration wants to bring freedom to oppressed peoples? Is that not because there’s some underlying common mutual interest, some underlying common shared idea, some underlying common shared aspiration, underlying unified concept of what human dignity means? I think that’s what we’re trying to tell the rest of the world, anyway.�