Justice Kennedy's jurisprudence

by Frank J. Colucci

With a record reliably neither liberal nor conservative, Kennedy has generally been viewed as a capricious, indecisive moderate. Frank Colucci, however, argues that Kennedy indeed displays a coherent approach to constitutional interpretation. Colucci identifies Kennedy's core belief: that judges have a duty to ensure the word liberty in the Constitution be given its full and necessary meaning. Colucci shows that Kennedy rejects theories of originalism and judicial restraint. Instead, Kennedy adopts a moral reading of the Constitution in which liberty and human dignity trump even democracy. --From publisher description.