Justice Anthony Kennedy's book is not boring

Consider This from NPR

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🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

As a justice on the Supreme Court, Anthony Kennedy wrote some big opinions.

He was appointed by President Reagan, and most often voted with conservatives.

But his vote was often pivotal in controversial cases about hot-button issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, and in several key instances he voted with the court's liberals.

In a new memoir, he opens up about his time on the court -- and he tells NPR's Nina Totenberg he is concerned about bitter partisanship today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When Anthony Kennedy was a Supreme Court justice, there was a red emergency phone in his chambers that never rang.
0:07.0	Then one day, it did.
0:09.1	On the end of the line was a state prisoner in Ohio who'd somehow gotten this number and was calling to tell Kennedy what he thought of a recent opinion.
0:18.6	After that, he kept calling.
0:20.8	So I had the prisoner on the red phone
0:24.4	telling me how well I was doing or how poorly I was doing. And the police heard about it.
0:30.3	They immediately wanted to change it. I said, well, no, leave it. Kennedy said he sort of liked
0:36.2	the occasional call.
0:39.8	That's the thing about being a Supreme Court justice.
0:45.2	Every American, including an inmate in Ohio, is bound by your opinions.
0:47.2	And Kennedy wrote some big ones.
0:52.9	He was appointed by President Reagan and most often voted with conservatives. I think the Supreme Court decisions today are a big win for the First Amendment and a step
0:57.8	in the right direction.
0:58.8	That's then House Republican leader John Boehner praising Kennedy's decision in Citizens
1:03.2	United in 2010.
1:05.0	It opened the door to vast corporate spending on politics.
1:08.7	Kennedy's vote was often pivotal, and in several key instances,
1:12.7	he sided with the court's liberals, never more famously than an Obergefeld v. Hodges.
1:21.7	The decision that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
1:27.3	Consider this, Justice Anthony Kennedy opens up about his time on the court in a new
1:32.2	memoir and in an interview with our longtime Supreme Court reporter.
1:36.3	He has a warning about better partisanship, even on the nation's highest court.
	...

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