Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is slated to release a “boxed set” two-volume memoir this fall, tracking his early life in California to his 30-year career on the high court, according to his publisher.
Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that Kennedy’s Life and Law: The Early Years and Life and Law: The Court Years will be published on Oct. 1 in a two-volume set and in individual editions, totaling roughly 320 pages each. Kennedy, 87, wrote that his intent was to summarize his early life growing up in California, but that “something happened on the way to the pencil” and compelled him to write an additional volume recounting his three decades on the high court.
“More and more of my recollections turned to how our society and its mindset changed in fascinating ways from the ’40s and ’50s to the ’60s and then again in the ’70s,” Kennedy said in a press release. “This seemed relevant to the dynamics that influenced me and our larger society.”
Kennedy’s legacy includes writing landmark opinions such as Windsor v. United States and Obergefell v. Hodges, both 5-4 rulings extending constitutional protection to the marriage of same-sex couples, and other notable decisions such as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which permitted corporations and other entities to spend unlimited amounts of cash on election campaigns.
Appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, Kennedy served on the Supreme Court from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. The retired justice was most recently seen publicly at President Joe Biden‘s March 7 State of the Union address.
Following his retirement announcement, then-President Donald Trump nominated former Kennedy law clerk Brett Kavanaugh, who was narrowly approved by the Senate after harrowing confirmation hearings involving allegations that he sexually assaulted accuser Christine Blasey Ford when they were in high school. Kavanaugh fiercely denied the allegations and was confirmed by a 50-48 vote.
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Kennedy’s book announcement comes just one week after retired Justice Stephen Breyer, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, released his book titled Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, his first publication since leaving the high court in 2022.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom Biden nominated to succeed Breyer, is also slated to release her memoir Lovely One on Sept. 3.
