Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Kennedy, Anthony Mcleod

Anthony McLeod Kennedy was appointed as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988. Kennedy was the third person nominated by President RONALD REAGAN to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice LEWIS F. POWELL JR. As a judicial conservative, Kennedy has generally voted with the conservative justices on the Court, yet he has split from them in significant rulings on ABORTION rights and gay rights.

Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California, on July 28, 1936. He graduated from Stanford University in 1958 and from Harvard Law School in 1961. He practiced law in San Francisco and Sacramento and taught CONSTITUTIONAL LAW at the McGeorge School of Law of the University of the Pacific from 1965...