Justice Kennedy's Genius

During the course of over three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy appeared to be the most important jurist in the country and, at least with respect to hot-button domestic policy questions, maybe even the most important government official in the country. He either wrote the key opinion or cast the decisive vote in cases concerning abortion, affirmative action,2 corporate-funded political speech,3 the death penalty,4 gay rights (including marriage),5 gun control,6 school prayer,7 states' rights,8 and more. Justice Kennedy has been so central to the contemporary understanding of the Constitution that it was big news when, in the 2012 decision mostly upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Chief Justice John Roberts rather than Justice Kennedy cast the deciding vote. 9 The case was the exception that proved the rule, and the rule has been the rule of Justice Kennedy