The Great Legacy of Fmr Justice Anthony Kennedy

 I have long been a student of the United States Supreme Court. For nigh five decades I have followed court rulings, Supreme Court Justices and the effect rulings have had on politics and the citizenry. I've been most interested in the Supreme Court because I believe it is the branch of government that has the most prevailing and significant impact on the everyday lives of the American people. Of course, it also serves a monumental role as an arbiter who maintains the checks and balances on the other branches of government. The U.S. has an extensive hierarchical court system allowing for appeals and reviews. Cases in the lower courts are often overturned, dismissed, retried, and appealed all in attempt to ensure true justice is carried out. Cases that are unable to get resolved in the lower courts often are presented to the Supreme Court, which is the court of last resort. 

Former Justice Anthony Kennedy was appointed by President Reagan in 1987. After serving 31 years on the bench he retired in 2018. Justice Kennedy was known for writing some of the court's landmark opinions and wielded significant influence across various legal domains, including LGBTQ+ rights. To give some insight into Justice Kennedy's personal composition, in the case of Griswold vs Connecticut, a privacy case about the use of contraceptives, Kennedy discussed "a zone of liberty, a zone of protection, a line that's drawn where the individual can tell the Government, 'beyond this line you may not go.'" Kennedy became known as an independent thinker, though he voted with the conservative justices the majority of the time, but not always. 

Recently, Kennedy spoke during "Speak Up for Justice"' a virtual forum about threats to the rule of law, defending the role of judges in a democracy. He advocated the need to protect them and their families from threats. "Many in the rest of the world look to the United States to see what democracy is, to see what democracy ought to be," stated Kennedy. "If they see a hostile, fractious discourse that uses identity politics rather than to talk about issues, democracy is at risk. Freedom is at risk." Kennedy did not mention Trump by name during his speech. He did say, "We should be concerned in this country about, as I've already indicated, the tone of our political discourse. Identity politics are used so that a person is characterized by his or her partisan affiliation. That is not what democracy and civil discourse is about." 

Other participants at the forum, which included judges from the US and other countries warned about how attacks on courts can threaten democracies, denouncing statements by Trump deriding the courts. US District court Judge Esther Salas, whose son was killed by a disgruntled lawyer who went to her New Jersey home in 2020, said, "disinformation about judges was spreading 'from the top down' with jurists attacked as 'rogue and corrupt'". Salas warned that the number of threats recorded against judges this year was reaching unprecedented heights in the U.S., noting that the U.S. Marshals Service has tracked more than 400 threats since January, when Trump took office. 

Though retired, and no longer a sitting jurist, Justice Kennedy's resounding opinion on this issue should strike a strident chord with everyone, from the President himself down to ordinary people discussing politics in a coffee shop. There is indeed a threat to democracy, finally someone has spoken up and told us exactly what it is. 

PTSD is a curse...And LA is bringing it home...

I watch and read the news about the riots going on in LA. Bricks, rocks and bottles being hurled at police, cars burning and being vandalized. Ingrates standing on vandalized cars waving the flags of foreign countries. Most of them draped in a keffiyah. Protesting the “oppression of Palestine and the slaughter of innocent Palestinians.” Perhaps the protesters should attend the same training Great Thunberg is getting in Israel about now; videos of the October 7 attack that killed over 1,200 innocent Israelis and 250 civilians taken hostage. Unprovoked attack, I might add. Many of the hostages have died in captivity. Some have yet to be released. 

And here we are, watching Los Angeles burn. The governor himself can’t bring himself to call in the resources to calm the situation. Nor can the mayor of Los Angeles. Trump calls the National Guard and greaseball Newscum starts squawking like a goose. Why? Your city is on fire, out of control and you dont want help to quell the riots? What’s the plan, let them have their fun and we’ll clean up after them? Is that what being a sanctuary city is all about? Do you want Trump to call Hamas and tell them “We’re so sorry, you guys carry on, we’ll get those pesky Israelis out of your hair.” Seriously, what is it that you want?

Whatever it is, you’re not going to get it. If you’re lucky, maybe a couple of weeks in jail and a hefty fine. If you’re an illegal alien, a one way ticket home. That’s if you’re lucky. As far as cleaning up the mess, that’s Newscum’s problem. Forget about federal help.

So, why did I mention that PTSD is a curse? Some years ago when I was a young man starting my career, I was given an assignment in Iran. Short term, no big deal. This was back in the late 70’s when Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was the ruler of Iran. He was not a good character, nevertheless, for political reasons he was a political ally of the US. In February 1979, at the height of some serious political and civil unrest in Iran, the Shah was overthrown and left Iran going into permanent exile. Before he left, the streets of Tehran looked a lot like the streets of LA today. Rioting, burning cars, trucks and buildings, protesting and chaos. Just like LA today. How do I know this, I was there. Leading up to the shah’s departure, the unrest was gradually, yet steadily growing. The company I worked for had an office in downtown Tehran, we walked to and from the hotel daily to work. Now and then we would see some troublemakers throw a rock or two, but we didn’t think things were out of hand. Until it was. The last couple of times I made the walk to and from work, was like being on a movie set, but it was no movie. It was real life, and it was terrifying. The morning I went in to the office and saw bullet holes in the windows, I told the boss I’m done. Apparently, at that time I was the only one who was throwing in the towel. I later learned that it wasn’t long before the rest did the same. 

I was booked on a flight out of Tehran the next day that departed at 8am. I had to be at the airport at 5am. Martial law was in effect, so anyone on the streets between 5am and 8pm was subject to being shot. Evidently, due process wasn’t a thing in Iran. Still isn’t…The taxi driver spent the night in the hotel lobby since he couldn’t make the trip from his home to the hotel during curfew. At 5 am sharp, we loaded my bag in the taxi and took off on the dark, quiet streets of Tehran. As we were leaving we noticed the hotel staff were taking down portraits of the Shah. I asked one of them why they were doing that. The reply was “It’s for the guest’s safety.” The taxi driver took off driving hurriedly through the deserted streets, making lots of turns. I wondered why he seemed to be meandering, it was adding to my growing anxiety. My mind was conjuring up more ‘what-ifs’ than you can imagine. But he kept driving and that gave me hope. After forty-five minutes or so of scurrying down dark streets, we turned onto what seemed to be a straightaway. I prayed it was the ‘homestretch’ to the airport. But as soon as we turned onto the open road, hope quickly faded into fear. For as far as I could see were troops, armed troops milling about armored tanks carrying automatic rifles. The first thought that came to mind was Jesus, please don’t stop. I had no idea, no clue, what the next few minutes would bring to my life. Is he going to stop the car, the door to be yanked open and I would be drug onto the sand and who knows what next… Who’s side is he on? Is he getting bakshish for delivering an American? The Iranians were as unhappy with us as much as they were with the Shah. Just.Keep.Driving. was all I could think. As we sped down the road through hell I occasioned a look out the window and actually made eye contact with a couple of armed soldiers. At least, I thought they were soldiers. In the Middle East it’s often difficult to tell who is a soldier and whose side they are on. Making eye contact was a big mistake when your anxiety is hitting a zenith. They appeared to be as unhappy as I was which was not a good sign. I slid a little lower in the seat and continued to pray. We were probably on the straightaway for about fifteen minutes. It felt like a week. I suppose it wasn’t my time to go as the driver kept driving and we soon pulled up in front of the airport. A few minutes after 8 o’clock the 737 took off for London. As it turns out, it was to be the last commercial flight to leave Iran for several years. Once we were ‘wheels up’ everyone on the plane, I suppose over 200 passengers, applauded. Myself included. 

Several years after the Shah was exiled, a movie was made about the brief period of time around the Shah’s departure until the Iranian dissidents took the American hostages at the American Embassy. The movie was about employees of a company owned by Ross Perot, titled “On Wings of Eagles.” Many of his employees didnt leave before the last flight that I had the privilege of being on. With no aviation transport, they were forced to make their way to the coast and pay for passage on boats. Any kind of boat, tugboats, merchant ships, money talked and it saved lives. One day later and I would have been doing the same. If you haven’t seen the movie, dig through the archives and check it out. It’s historically accurate, and gripping. 

What I see happening in Los Angeles today brings back memories of my time in Tehran. The streets of LA look eerily like the streets of Tehran did back then. Iran’s history was etched in stone during those days. The not-at-all peaceful transfer of power, and the emergence of a radical Muslim regime. I’ll never be able to forget what I saw in Tehran. Countless lives were forever changed during those days. Mine included. Now, watching the same happen in LA? Are the National Guard and the Marines needed? Did Trump make the right decision? From my perspective, yes…

Highly Creative People...And the malady many of them often carry...

There are a lot of ‘things’ in our lives that have contributed to making life better in some way. I use the word ‘things’ simply because I can’t think of a word inclusive enough to cover everything. Art, music, culture, technology, products, markets… and more. What I want to talk about is the people behind some of these monumental, life-changing developments and some common, yet unique characteristics so many of them seem to possess. Many of these people are famous, at least to some extent and their fame generally comes from their remarkable contributions. But when we take a closer look at the person, the character behind the watershed creations they left us with, often we find traits, attributes, facets, mannerisms, habits, and quirks that we weren’t expecting to learn. In some cases, they can be shocking. Things we learn about as them as a person doesn’t seem to align with their persona and their remarkable contributions to society. So many of these creative geniuses left legacies that in many ways define the world live in, yet the personal impressions they left with those who knew them, lived with them, collaborated with them was repugnant, even abhorrent. Perhaps they did leave us with a cultural or technological treasure, but they also left an acidic reputation. It’s an intriguing topic, let’s look at some examples. 

A contemporary with whom practically everyone alive is familiar with and who left us with a plethora of technological marvels is none other than Steve Jobs. Probably half the population of the world is using an iPhone, or an iPad, or an iMac or something else made by Apple. There are quite a number of people who possess considerable wealth due to the rocketing rise in value of the Apple brand through the years. But if you set aside all these technological miracles and take a closer look at the person who brought it all to life, you might be surprised. Steve Jobs was brash, arrogant, contemptuous, intense, and driven. While he did lead a company known for quality products, he was exceptionally difficult to work with. 

Some of these creative geniuses who drove hard to impress the world with their altruistic efforts weren’t quite able to ‘keep it between the legal lines’. Perhaps what they lacked in genuine creative genius they made up for it with corruption and deceit. Take the case of Elizabeth Holmes. At the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford University and founded Theranos, a healthcare technology company. The company claimed to have developed revolutionary blood testing technology that could perform hundreds of tests with a single drop of blood. This promised to make blood testing cheaper, more convenient, and more accessible. Theranos reached a valuation of $9 billion. The company’s proprietary technology was soon found to be unreliable, and it was discovered they were using commercially available machines for their testing while falsely claiming breakthroughs. As the trail of fraud and conspiracy began to unravel, her and her co-conspirator Ramesh Balwani were convicted on multiple fraud charges and are both currently in prison. 

One would be hard-pressed to find a living person who has not listened to music by the Beatles. Everyone has pleasant memories they associate with a Beatles song. Millions recognize their songs anytime they hear them. They were all very talented artists but Lennon and McCartney formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in music history. Several of the songs they wrote became cultural icons and defined a generation. Lennon’s songwriting often explored themes of love, peace, and social commentary. One might expect that such beautiful music heralding such compassion would be the reflections of a calm and tranquil soul. Not so much. Lennon had a reputation for being sarcastic and cynical. His impulsive nature lead to numerous controversies. He was egotistical and highly opinionated, arrogant. 

We have come to expect a level of eccentricity from musicians, not often seen in others. Often an underpinning of their brand is uniqueness. Standing out, so to speak. Contemporaries are often known for their affinity for mind-altering drug use, probably a lot of great songs came from musicians on a high. And of course there’s the aberrant and reckless behavior that accompanies the drug use. And we all know fame often builds colossal egos. This isn’t only contemporary musicians though. Let’s go back a few centuries and have a look at Ludwig von Beethoven. Talent and greatness only begin to describe Beethoven. He revolutionized almost every genre of music he touched. He introduced greater emotional range and intensity, using innovative harmonies and rhythms. His symphonies transformed the genre from entertaining works into grand, dramatic statements. His music had a profound influence on later generations of composers. Beethoven became deaf in his later years yet still continued to compose some of his greatest works. Beethoven was a fiery and irascible person. His irritability was likely exacerbated by his deafness and the isolation it caused. In spite of his disability, he had an enormous ego and was arrogant. Like Lennon, he was often sarcastic and dismissive of the opinions of others. He could be blunt, tactless and incredibly rude. 

A particularly interesting case of a bright, idealistic visionary who went terribly ‘off the rails’ was Martin Shkreli. Shkreli dropped out of high school but later earned a business degree from Baruch College. He started a career in finance and founded two hedge funds. Neither venture made much money, which led him to the pharmaceutical industry as a potentially lucrative area. He co-founded the biotech firm Retrophin. In 2015, Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired Daraprim, a 62 year-old drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be life-threatening, especially for people with HIV/AIDS and pregnant women. Shortly after acquiring it, Turing raised the price of a single pill from $13.50 to $750, an increase in excess of 5,000%. Shkreli defended the price hike by claiming that profits would be used for research and development of new and better drugs. He also claimed that Daraprim made up only a small percentage of overall health costs and offered to provide the drug at a lower costs to patients without insurance. His claims were widely rejected and faced immense public outrage. Prior to the Daraprim controversy, Shkreli was under investigation for his activities at Retrophin. In December 2015, he was arrested by the FBI and charged with securities fraud. It was alleged that he defrauded investors in his hedge funds and used money from Retrophin to pay them back. In 2018 he was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to forfeit $7.4 million in assets. Shkreli became known not only for the Daraprim price hike, but also for his provocative and offensive online presence. He frequently engaged in controversial behavior on social media, including taunting his critics. Since his release from prison, he has been banned from serving as an officer of any publicly traded company. 

While Shkreli obviously crossed the line into criminal activity, most savants don’t. But character traits that seem to pervade the class of the overly talented is brash, caustic, narcissistic personalities. Some appear to be motivated by self-adulation, with a sharp contempt for others. There are a host of well-known personalities who exhibit exceptional talent and creativity who also posses some or all of the characteristics described in the above cases. Such as Gordon Ramsey, Kanye West, Bobby Fischer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Howard Hughes, Thomas Edison, Andrew Fastow, Sam Bankman-Fried, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, Travis Kalanick, John Kapoor… All highly capable, intelligent, over-achievers who were comtemptuous, solipsistic jack-asses. Most overlooked these fatal character flaws in light of their astounding achievements and contributions. One cant help but wonder, why? Why do super-savants need to be caustic personalities? The axiom, we are a product of our environment doesn’t really hold in these cases. Most probably came from decent, respectable families. Even if that weren't the case, at some point in everyone’s life we become individually responsible for who and what we are. Granted, everyone is not a ‘nice guy.’ Everyone is not socially adept and easy to get along with. We dont expect everyone to be. But typically in the real world, in everyday life, the stubborn, recalcitrant, jerks usually pay a price for the inability to get along. If you happen to be a super-creative innovator, then I suppose you’ll just have to live alone in your little universe that you believe yourself to be the center of. And we’re only too happy to let you…