former Justice Kennedy expresses Concern Over Increasing Polarization of Supreme Court
WASHINGTON – Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has voiced concern about the current tone of the nation’s highest court, describing it as “a little bit too personal adn confrontational.” In a recent interview accompanying the release of his memoir, Life, Law & Liberty, Kennedy acknowledged worrying about the increasingly public disagreements among justices.
Kennedy,whose tenure on the Court from 1988 to 2018 was marked by pivotal rulings on issues of individual rights,emphasized the importance of civility and respect in democratic discourse. “Democracy presumes an open,rational,thoughtful,decent discussion where you respect the dignity of the person with whom you disagree,” he stated. “And if it doesn’t have that, then democracy as we certainly know it is indeed in danger.”
His concerns come as the Court has seen a shift in its ideological makeup and a series of high-profile decisions overturning long-standing precedents. In 2022, the Court reversed Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion, a decision Justice Samuel Alito, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Association, deemed ”egregiously wrong” and critical of Kennedy’s prior opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Kennedy, though, affirmed his support for the decisions he authored, stating, ”I stand by what we wrote and what we decided.It’s a challenging issue.”
Notably,a petition has been filed asking the Court to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that legalized same-sex marriage, a decision Kennedy authored, stating that “no union is more profound than marriage.” He also observed that overturning prior rulings is a rare occurrence.
throughout his career, Kennedy’s opinions often centered on themes of “freedom” and “liberty,” earning him a reputation for well-written and impactful jurisprudence – one colleague even remarked his work “passed the refrigerator test.” However, observers like Carl Greene note that Kennedy’s legacy appears to be fading as the Court moves in a different direction.
Today, Kennedy spends time with his nine grandchildren and remains cautious about directly criticizing current justices, but his apprehension about the Court’s trajectory is clear.
