Michael Stephen Kanne (December 21, 1938 – June 16, 2022) was a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...

and a former United States District Judge of the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana (in case citations, N.D. Ind.) was created in 1928 by an act of Congress that split Indiana into two separate districts, northern and southern. As part of the act, the Northern Dist ...

Education and career

Born in Rensselaer,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, Kanne received a

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degree from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest ca ...

in 1962. He served as a lieutenant in the

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from 1962 to 1965. He then received a Juris Doctor from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1968. He was in private practice in Rensselaer, Indiana from 1968 to 1972, working as a city attorney for the City of Rensselaer in 1972. He was a judge on the 30th Judicial Circuit of Indiana from 1972 to 1982, and was a lecturer at St. Joseph's College from 1976 to 1989, and at St. Francis College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1990 to 1991.

Federal judicial service

On December 4, 1981, Kanne was nominated by

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Ronald Reagan to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Phil McClellan McNagny Jr. Kanne was confirmed by the

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on February 8, 1982, and received his commission on February 9, 1982. During a prosecution of the New Chicago

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in Kanne's court, he quipped that New Chicago is the "most corrupt square mile in America." His service terminated on May 21, 1987, due to elevation to the court of appeals. On February 2, 1987, Reagan nominated Kanne to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Jesse E. Eschbach. Kanne was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 19, 1987, and received his commission on May 20, 1987. On June 7, 2017, Representative

Louie Gohmert Louis Buller Gohmert Jr. (; born August 18, 1953) is an American attorney, politician, and former jurist serving as the U.S. representative from Texas's 1st congressional district since 2005. Gohmert is a Republican and was part of the Tea P ...

(Texas Dist. 1) noted Kanne's conservative judicial philosophy, stating that: "There are only two reliable originalists on the court, Michael Kanne and Diane S. Sykes." In February 2018, Kanne announced his intention to assume senior status upon the confirmation of a successor, provided that said successor would be one of his former law clerks, Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher. However, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

ultimately declined to nominate Fisher following internal opposition from

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Mike Pence; as a result, Kanne rescinded his decision to assume senior status in May 2018, instead opting to remain as an active judge. Kanne remained in active service until his death on June 16, 2022.

Notable cases

In December 2017, Kanne supported the 4–3 en banc decision to reverse an earlier federal magistrate judgement that a confession had been unlawfully coerced from 16-year-old Brendan Dassey. The dissenting opinion described this decision as 'a travesty of justice'. On August 27, 2019, Kanne dissented when David F. Hamilton and

Ilana Rovner Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner (born August 21, 1938) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rovner was the first woman appointed to the Seventh Circuit. She was previously a United States distr ...

blocked a parental notification requirement for abortions in Indiana. The 7th circuit denied rehearing 6–5 on November 1, 2019, with Kanne dissenting again, joined by Joel Flaum,

Amy Coney Barrett Amy Vivian Coney Barrett (born January 28, 1972) is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The fifth woman to serve on the court, she was nominated by President Donald Trump and has served since October 27, 2020. ...

Michael B. Brennan Michael Brian Brennan (born 1963) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He was first nominated on August 3, 2017, by President Donald Trump, and was re-nominated in 2018. He was confir ...

, and Michael Y. Scudder.

Frank Easterbrook Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born September 3, 1948) is an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar who has served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 1985. He was the Seventh Circuit's chief ...

wrote a concurrence calling on the Supreme Court to take up the case.

References

External links

* * Kanne, Michael (October 10, 1995)
Architecture. A room with a view to do justice
''The Lawyer (UK)''.
Oral argument before Michael Kanne
(video 1:09 mins), in ''USA v. Randy Johnson''. November 30, 2016. C-Span. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanne, Michael Stephen 1938 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American judges Indiana state court judges Indiana University Bloomington alumni Indiana University Maurer School of Law alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana Military personnel from Indiana People from Rensselaer, Indiana United States Air Force officers United States court of appeals judges appointed by Ronald Reagan United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan