Posted by Randy Barnett:
Justice Kennedy’s Date With “Dignity”?:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_31-2009_06_06.shtml#1244152359
Political science professor Helen Knowles, the author of [1]The Tie
Goes to Freedom: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on Liberty has posted
[2]Justice Kennedy�s Date With �Dignity�? (Part I: Race and Human
Dignity), the first of a two-part series of blog posts on the Rowman &
Littlefield blog about Justice Kennedy and pending Supreme Court
cases. Here is how it starts:
Watchers of the work of the U.S. Supreme Court eagerly anticipate
June, when that institution frequently announces several
blockbuster outcomes in the cases that remain to be decided. As the
Court brings its term to a close at the end of that month,
anticipation mounts as commentators speculate about possible votes
and the likely identity of the justices who will pen opinions (for
the majority, and separately in concurrences and dissents). June
2009 promises to be no different.
It is perilous to try and predict the direction of the twists and
turns that justice will take at the Court during what remains of
this year of its work. To be sure, we know that the Term�s end will
bring the retirement of Justice Souter, and the inevitable feeding
frenzy that will accompany the confirmation hearings of his
nominated successor, Judge Sotomayor. Before that happens, however,
several major cases remain to be decided. While the results will
not be known until the justices choose to make them public, there
is one thing about which most commentators agree, regardless of
ideology. Articles in the both the New York Times and the Wall
Street Journal reach the same conclusion: In Ricci v. DeStefano and
Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, the
man at the jurisprudential center of the Court will be the deciding
vote; the key to these cases will be Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
What commentators ignore, however, is what might actually be the
key to these cases as Justice Kennedy sees them. That key is the
concept of �dignity.� During his two decades on the Court, this
concept has been just as significant to Kennedy�s jurisprudence as
has been the �man in the middle� role he has played on a bench
frequently split between four more conservative and four more
moderate men and women.
In this, the first of two blog entries, I look at the potential
�dignity� reading that a Kennedy-authored opinion might give to the
issues involved in Ricci v. DeStefano (a case which has taken on
added significance since President Obama�s nomination of Judge
Sotomayor � who was part of the lower appeals court panel of judges
whose decision was appealed to the Supreme Court (her participation
in the case is discussed over at Scotusblog)). Next time, I will
offer a similar discussion of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility
District No. 1 v. Holder.
References
1.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742562573?ie=UTF8&tag=randyebarnetbost&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0742562573
2.
http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2009/06/justice-kennedys-date-with-dignity-part-i-race-and-human-dignity.html
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