Anthony Kennedy (23 July 1936-) was an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 18 February 1988 to 31 July 2018, succeeding Lewis F. Powell Jr. and preceding Brett Kavanaugh.
Biography[]
Anthony Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California in 1936, and he took over his father's legal practice after graduating from Harvard Law School. In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed Kennedy as a circuit court judge, and, in 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to fill a vacant seat on the US Supreme Court. He was known to look at cases individually instead of from the point of view of a political ideology, and he was often described as a libertarian, protecting sexual orientation and a degree of abortion rights. In 2018, he retired from the court after 30 years, and he was succeeded by the controversial Trump pick, Brett Kavanaugh.