Anthony McLeod Kennedy was born in Sacramento in 1936, took over his father's law practice, and taught constitutional law for years before Gerald Ford appointed him to the Ninth Circuit. When Robert Bork's nomination failed and a second choice withdrew, Ronald Reagan turned to Kennedy — a soft-spoken and uncontroversial judge — who was confirmed unanimously in 1988.
For three decades Kennedy was the vote that decided America's deepest disputes — the pivotal justice whose single ballot could turn on abortion, the death penalty, race, campaign finance, and, above all, the constitutional status of gay Americans. He cared, more than most, about the words 'dignity' and 'liberty.' He wrote the Court's great gay-rights quartet — from Romer through Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws, to Obergefell v. Hodges, which established a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. He joined the centrist Casey opinion preserving Roe. But he also wrote Citizens United, unleashing corporate money into politics in the name of the First Amendment — a reminder that the swing vote swung both ways. He retired in 2018.
Lawrence v. Texas
2003Holding · Laws criminalizing intimate conduct between adults of the same sex violate the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause.
Role · Kennedy wrote for the Court, overruling Bowers v. Hardwick (1986, White §93).
The heart of the gay-rights revolution he authored, grounded in liberty and dignity rather than narrow doctrine.
Read the opinion →Obergefell v. Hodges
2015Holding · The Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry nationwide.
Role · Kennedy wrote for a five-to-four Court.
The culmination of a twenty-year arc, and one of the most consequential civil-rights rulings of the century.
Read the opinion →Citizens United v. FEC
2010Holding · The First Amendment bars the government from restricting independent political spending by corporations and unions.
Role · Kennedy wrote for the Court.
Transformed American campaign finance and remains among the most debated decisions of the era — the swing vote at its most conservative.
Read the opinion →For three decades Anthony Kennedy was the vote that decided America's deepest disputes — the pivotal justice of the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts, whose single ballot could turn on abortion, the death penalty, race, campaign finance, and, above all, the constitutional status of gay Americans. A soft-spoken Sacramento lawyer and Reagan appointee confirmed in 1988 only after the Senate rejected Robert Bork, Kennedy resisted the labels of both wings; he cared, more than most, about human 'dignity' and 'liberty,' words that recur through his opinions. He wrote the Court's great gay-rights quartet, from Romer through Lawrence v. Texas — which struck down sodomy laws — to Obergefell v. Hodges, which established a nationwide right to same-sex marriage; he joined the centrist opinion that saved Roe in Casey; and he also wrote Citizens United, unleashing corporate money into politics in the name of the First Amendment, a reminder that the swing vote swung both ways. There is no full popular biography; the best guides are the studies of his jurisprudence. Begin with Colucci, then read Lawrence and Obergefell, and set Citizens United beside them.
The Bookshelf
The best single study of how Kennedy thought, and the natural starting point given the absence of a full biography. Colucci argues that Kennedy was not merely a splitter of differences but a justice with a coherent, if contested, philosophy centered on liberty and human dignity — one that explains votes the left and right each found maddening. Clear and fair-minded, it takes Kennedy's ideas seriously as ideas, and it is the key to the justice whose vote so often was the law. University Press of Kansas.
The best study of Kennedy's constitutional thought — Helen Knowles's argument that a coherent conception of liberty, not mere difference-splitting, runs through his opinions on speech, dignity, and gay rights. The book for the jurisprudence behind the swing vote. Rowman & Littlefield.
The opinion that overruled Bowers v. Hardwick and struck down laws criminalizing intimate conduct between adults of the same sex. Kennedy grounded the decision not in narrow doctrine but in liberty and dignity — the right of persons 'to define one's own concept of existence' and to be free of state condemnation of their private lives. Scalia's furious dissent (§103) warned it would lead directly to same-sex marriage; twelve years later, in Kennedy's own hand, it did. Read it as the heart of the gay-rights revolution he authored, and as the clearest window into his jurisprudence of dignity.
Kennedy's culminating opinion, establishing a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples nationwide — the capstone of a twenty-year arc he had begun in Romer and carried through Lawrence and Windsor. Rooted in liberty, equality, and dignity rather than tight legal syllogism, its soaring final passages became some of the most quoted lines in modern constitutional law, even as dissenters and critics faulted its reasoning as more lyrical than rigorous. Read it as the emotional and doctrinal summit of the swing justice's career, and judge for yourself whether its rhetoric matches its logic.
The decision that shows the swing vote swinging right, and a corrective to any simple picture of Kennedy as a liberal on social questions. Writing for a five-to-four Court, he held that the First Amendment bars the government from limiting independent political spending by corporations and unions, transforming the landscape of American campaign finance. Denounced by critics as a charter for unlimited money in politics and defended by Kennedy as a vindication of free speech, it is essential for understanding the whole justice — libertarian on speech as much as on personal dignity. Read it beside Lawrence and Obergefell.
Kennedy's own account, published in October 2025 — Sacramento, the 1987 nomination after Bork, and unusually candid reflections on Casey, Obergefell, and the swing-seat decades. The most revealing thing the Court's pivotal justice has ever put on paper, and the obvious first book on him now. Simon & Schuster.
The major post-retirement scholarly volume — fifteen scholars on Romer, Casey, and Obergefell, on 'the sweet mystery of life,' and on the blind spots. The assessment that brings this shelf forward from 2009. Penn State University Press.
The Reading Path
A researched route through the literature — in order.
- 1.Colucci, Justice Kennedy's Jurisprudence — for the coherent philosophy behind the swing vote
- 2.Lawrence v. Texas — for the heart of the gay-rights revolution he authored
- 3.Obergefell v. Hodges — for the culminating opinion on marriage and dignity
- 4.Citizens United v. FEC — for the other Kennedy — free speech and money in politics
Where the Papers Are Kept
Kennedy retired in 2018, and his judicial papers have not been opened to researchers; whether and where they will be deposited, and under what restrictions, remains to be seen. For now the record of his jurisprudence lies in the published opinions themselves and in the files of colleagues whose papers are open, such as Harry Blackmun's (§98) at the Library of Congress. The Federal Judicial Center and Oyez provide the essential biographical and case record. Visit →
Ideas for Further Research
- The jurisprudence of dignity. 'Dignity' and 'liberty' recur through Kennedy's opinions as touchstones, yet critics complain the words do more emotional than analytic work. Trace the concept of dignity across Romer, Lawrence, Windsor, and Obergefell, and ask whether Kennedy built a genuine constitutional principle or an eloquent vocabulary for conclusions reached on other grounds — and what happens to that principle now that its author has left the Court.
- The power and the peril of the swing vote. For years American law often turned on what Anthony Kennedy would join, making a single justice extraordinarily powerful and outcomes hard to predict. Study the structural consequences of a Court with a decisive center: does it push the law toward moderation and compromise, or concentrate unaccountable power in one person's evolving convictions? Compare his pivotal role with O'Connor's (§102) before him.
- Speech libertarian, dignity liberal. Kennedy protected gay rights and abortion access but also wrote Citizens United and strong free-speech opinions that pleased conservatives. Ask whether a single coherent commitment — to individual liberty against the state — unites these seemingly opposed results, or whether Kennedy is better understood as two justices in one, and what that tension reveals about the limits of labeling justices left or right. Seat lineage: Lewis Powell §99 → Anthony Kennedy → Brett Kavanaugh §114.