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Anthony McLeod Kennedy

Anthony McLeod Kennedy

Supreme Court of the United States

Born 1936 in Sacramento, CA

FJC ID: 1256

Career output and lasting influence

Opinions attributed per year · peak 14/year

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1975–1988Supreme Court of the United States · 1988–20181975198019902000201020202026140
opinions

Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 16,568/year

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1975–1988Supreme Court of the United States · 1988–2018197519801990200020102020202617k0
citing decisions

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1975–1988Supreme Court of the United States · 1988–2018

Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.

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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.

Full biography on Wikipedia ↗
Gender
Male
Race
White

Prior employment

  1. Federal Judicial Center
    Federal Judicial Center
    Board member · 1987–1988
  2. University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
    University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
    Professor of constitutional law · 1965–1987
  3. Private practice, Sacramento, California
    1963–1975
  4. Private practice, San Francisco, California
    1961–1963
  5. California Army National Guard private first class
    1961

Appointments

  1. Supreme Court of the United States
    Supreme Court of the United States
    1988–2018 · Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican)
  2. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
    U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
    1975–1988 · Appointed by Gerald Ford (Republican)
    Term ended: Appointment to Another Judicial Position

Education

  1. Harvard Law School
    Harvard Law School
    J.D. · 1961
  2. Stanford University
    B.A. · 1958