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Life, Law & Liberty

Throughout his thirty-year tenure on the US Supreme Court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy authored landmark opinions on some of the most contested issues in American society, including abortion, gay rights, and free speech. At the ideological center of a divided Court, Kennedy sided with justice, fairness, and the liberty our Constitution guarantees.

Often defying expectations, Anthony Kennedy’s pursuit of equal justice helped him define the law of the land for a generation. His pivotal vote in closely watched 5-4 decisions led Time magazine to call him “The Decider.”

The fifteenth-longest-serving Supreme Court Justice in US history, Kennedy crafted headline-making opinions that legalized gay marriage, protected political speech, abolished the death penalty for minors, and, in a nuanced ruling, upheld a woman’s right to choose—decisions that were both celebrated and criticized across political lines.

How did this devout Catholic, Reagan appointee to the Court, and conservative in both temperament and politics end up authoring some of the most consequential liberal decisions of our time?

To understand Anthony Kennedy is to realize that, for him, judging is independent of politics, preferences, and religious beliefs. It is about a fundamental conviction that neutral principles must drive the decision and an unyielding commitment to the rule of law. Sometimes called a “swing vote,” the term misunderstands Kennedy’s approach. In his own words, “The cases swing, I don’t.”

Life, Law, and Liberty serves as a reflection on the role of a judge and the life story—filled with personal heartbreak and incredible accomplishment—of a precocious boy from Sacramento, California, who became the man Chief Justice John Roberts describes as “a special combination of legal acumen, collegiality, and kindness.”

The last Justice to be confirmed to the Court unanimously (97–0) by the Senate, Anthony Kennedy serves as a role model for our fractious times, an example of civility, decency, and ethics, and a deeply principled guardian of liberty.


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  • Anthony Kennedy

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  • Audiobook

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English

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  • Biographies and reportage
  • Biographies
  • Nonfiction
  • Law
  • Society and Social Sciences
  • Politics

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  1. Life, Law & Liberty : A Memoir

    Anthony Kennedy

    book

  • 2 books

    Anthony Kennedy

    Anthony M. Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California, July 23, 1936. He completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University and the London School of Economics. After graduating from Stanford, he received his LLB from Harvard Law School. He was in private practice in San Francisco from 1961 to 1963, and then in Sacramento, from 1963 to 1975. From 1965 to 1988, he was a professor of constitutional law at the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He has served in numerous positions during his career, including as a member of the California Army National Guard in 1961, the board of the Federal Judicial Center, and two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States: the committee now named 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. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1975. President Reagan later nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat February 18, 1988. Justice Kennedy left active service on the Supreme Court and assumed senior status on July 31, 2018.

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