Justice Kennedy Proudest Of Decisions Contrary To His Religious Beliefs

In a talk at Stanford University, former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said that a bitterly divided citizenry has reached a low point in the national dialogue, but took some measure of hope from the possibility that there is nowhere to go but up. Kennedy graduated from Stanford in1958 with a degree in political science. In a question and answer session with M. Elizabeth Magill, the Stanford Law School dean, Kennedy said: “When we’ve hit a low point in our civic dialogue, which I think we have, it should give energy to come upward.” He also said that senators were entitled to make political decisions about court nominees, “but they should remember that politics has an ethical underpinning.” He refused to elaborate on that observation and refrained from discussing the recent battle over confirmation of his successor and former clerk, Brett Kavanaugh. Queried what court decisions he took the most pride in, Kennedy, a Catholic, said the hardest decisions were those that required him to act “contrary to my own religious beliefs” because of “civic duty.” He cast deciding votes upholding gay rights rulings and the constitutional right to abortion.