Justice Kennedy Receives ALI's Friendly Medal
The American Law Institute presented Retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy with the Henry J. Friendly Medal at the Institute’s 96th Annual Meeting. The Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, presented the award.
Established in memory of Judge Henry J. Friendly, the Medal recognizes contributions to the law in the tradition of Judge Friendly and the Institute and is not limited to ALI members or those associated with its projects. The Friendly Medal is not awarded every year but only as appropriate.
“I am so pleased that Justice Kennedy received the Friendly Medal this year,” said David F. Levi, President of The American Law Institute. “I have known him for many years, beginning in the 1980s when we both lived and worked in Sacramento where Justice Kennedy was, and still is to this day, a revered figure. Justice Kennedy’s dedication to the rule of law, at home and abroad, makes him a most appropriate recipient of this special award. His long and distinguished career on the bench is very much in the tradition of Judge Friendly. It is fitting that the award is presented by Chief Justice Roberts, who clerked for Judge Friendly.”
Anthony M. Kennedy (Retired), Associate Justice, was born in Sacramento, California, July 23, 1936. He married Mary Davis and has three children. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and the London School of Economics, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School. He was in private practice in San Francisco, California from 1961–1963, as well as in Sacramento, California from 1963–1975. From 1965 to 1988, he was a Professor of Constitutional Law at the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He has served in numerous positions during his career, including a member of the California Army National Guard in 1961, the board of the Federal Judicial Center from 1987–1988, and two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States: the Advisory Panel on Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial Activities, subsequently renamed the Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct, from 1979–1987, and the Committee on Pacific Territories from 1979–1990, which he chaired from 1982–1990. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1975. President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat February 18, 1988. Justice Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court on July 31, 2018.
