Name: Anthony M. Kennedy

Office: Supreme Court of the United States

Biography: Kennedy is a hometown lawyer who made it big when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1988. In the latest stage of his career as a jurist, he has gained importance as a "swing vote" in a divided court. He has been called provincial because he spent most of his career and life in Sacramento, and before he made it to the biggest court in the land, he was still living in the home he grew up in for 51 years.