Anthony McLeod Kennedy

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US Supreme Court justice from 1988 to 2018

This article is about the associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. For the 19th-century United States senator, see Anthony Kennedy (Maryland politician) .

"Justice Kennedy" redirects here. For other uses, see Justice Kennedy (disambiguation) .

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Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of 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 considered 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 Stanford University and Harvard Law School . Kennedy became a U.S. federal judge in 1975 when President Gerald Ford appointed him 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. Kennedy retired during Donald Trump 's first term and was succeeded by his former law clerk, Brett Kavanaugh . Following O'Connor's death in 2023, Kennedy is the oldest living former Supreme Court justice.

Kennedy authored the majority opinion in several important cases—including _Boumediene v. Bush _, _Citizens United v. FEC _, and four major gay rights cases: _Romer v. Evans _, _Lawrence v. Texas _, _United States v. Windsor _, and _Obergefell v. Hodges _. He also co-authored the controlling opinion in _Planned Parenthood v. Casey _ along with Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and David Souter .

Early life and education

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Kennedy was born and raised in a Catholic family in Sacramento, California . His ancestry was mainly Irish, with some Scottish, German, and English ancestry as well. He was the son of Anthony J. Kennedy (1902–1963), an attorney with a reputation for influence in the California State Legislature , and Gladys (_née _ McLeod; 1904–1981), who participated in many local civic activities. As a boy, Kennedy came into contact with prominent politicians of the day, such as 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 Senate . Kennedy attended C. K. McClatchy High School , where he was an honors student and graduated in 1954.

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 . Kennedy then attended Harvard Law School , graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor of Laws , _cum laude _.

Early career

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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. From 1965 to 1988, he was a professor of constitutional law at McGeorge School of Law , at the University of the Pacific .

During Kennedy's time as a California law professor and attorney, he helped California Governor Ronald Reagan draft a state tax proposal.

Kennedy served as a private first class in the California Army National Guard from 1961 to 1962 during the Cold War . He was on the board of the [Federal Judicial Ce

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