Kennedy, Anthony (1936- )

US jurist, appointed associate justice of the US Supreme Court in 1988. A conservative, he wrote the majority opinion in Washington v. Harper (1990) that the administration of medication for mentally ill prisoners, without the prisoner's consent, is permissible.

Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California, and attended Stanford University (spending his fourth year at the London School of Economics) and the Harvard Law School. He established a private law practice in California 1962-75. He taught constitutional law at McGeorge School of Law of the University of the Pacific 1965-88 and was appointed judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1976. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Reagan.

He supported the majority opinion in the 1989 case, Texas v. Johnson, which ruled that the burning of the US flag in protest was protected by the First Amendment. In Saffle v. Parks (1990) he wrote the opinion that a writ of habeas corpus may be obtained only according to the laws in force at the time of a prisoner's conviction.