Justice Kennedy

Justice Kennedy taught my ConLaw class yesterday (actually a joint class for all 1Ls here), and it was a nice chance to give some color to my otherwise hollow impression of him. He has long been the last justice I remember when trying to account for all nine, but I'm not sure that's fair to him.

He gave a good lecture on the structures of the Constitution (separations of power, federalism, judicial review), focusing particularly on the unique nature of federalism at the time of the Founding.

He emphasized that in his view, federalism is not a protection of states' rights, but of individual rights, by keeping power closer to home and increasing accountability. He said that Morrison and Lopez should be seen as a warning sign to Congress that they need to be mindful of the effects of unduly duplicating or undermining state power.

I agree with the substance of his point (in fact it helped put me on a track of understanding how to mesh my left-leaning values with my distaste for legislating from Washington), but I couldn't get one question out of my mind: "Justice Kennedy, weren't you in the majority on Bush v. Gore?"