Michael Stephen Kanne

Michael Stephen Kanne was a United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1987 until his death in 2022. Born in Indiana in 1938, he spent more than three decades on the federal appellate bench following his appointment by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. Prior to his elevation to the circuit court, Kanne served as a United States district judge for the Northern District of Indiana and held various positions in state courts and private practice. He remained an active judge throughout his tenure, never taking senior status, and his service on the Seventh Circuit spanned approximately thirty-five years, making him one of the longer-serving members of that court.

Early life and legal career

Michael Stephen Kanne was born on December 21, 1938, in Rensselaer, Indiana, a small city in the northwestern part of the state. He pursued his undergraduate education at Indiana University Bloomington, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1962. Following his graduation, Kanne entered military service as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force, serving from 1962 to 1965 during a period that included the early escalation of American involvement in Vietnam. After completing his military obligation, he returned to Indiana to attend law school at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1968.

Upon earning his law degree, Kanne entered private practice in his hometown of Rensselaer, where he worked from 1968 to 1972. During this period, he also served as city attorney for the City of Rensselaer in 1972, gaining experience in municipal law and local government. His career then shifted to the judiciary when he was appointed as a judge on the 30th Judicial Circuit of Indiana, a position he held from 1972 to 1982. This decade of state court service provided him with substantial trial court experience across a range of civil and criminal matters. Concurrent with his judicial duties, Kanne maintained an academic connection to legal education, serving as a lecturer at St. Joseph's College from 1976 to 1989 and later at St. Francis College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1990 to 1991, sharing his practical knowledge with students pursuing legal careers.

Federal appellate service

Kanne's transition to the federal judiciary began when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana on December 4, 1981. He was nominated to fill a vacancy created by the departure of Judge Phil McClellan McNagny Jr. The Senate confirmed Kanne on February 8, 1982, and he received his commission the following day, February 9, 1982. During his service as a district judge, Kanne presided over various cases in northern Indiana, including criminal prosecutions. In one notable instance during a prosecution involving the New Chicago Chief of Police, he made a remark characterizing New Chicago as the "most corrupt square mile in America," a comment that reflected the nature of the case before him. His tenure on the district court lasted approximately five years.

On February 2, 1987, President Reagan nominated Kanne for elevation to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. This nomination was to fill a seat that had been vacated by Judge Jesse E. Eschbach. The Senate confirmed the nomination on May 19, 1987, and Kanne received his commission on May 20, 1987. His service on the district court officially terminated on May 21, 1987, as he assumed his new position on the appellate bench. The Seventh Circuit, which hears appeals from federal district courts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, would be Kanne's judicial home for the remainder of his career.

Throughout his decades on the circuit court, Kanne developed a reputation for a particular approach to constitutional interpretation. In June 2017, Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas's First District publicly characterized Kanne's judicial philosophy as conservative and originalist, stating that Kanne and Judge Diane S. Sykes were the only two reliable originalists on the Seventh Circuit at that time. This public characterization by a member of Congress reflected how Kanne's judicial work was perceived by some observers, though as a federal judge he remained non-partisan.

In February 2018, Kanne announced his intention to assume senior status, a form of semi-retirement available to federal judges who meet certain age and service requirements. However, he conditioned this decision on the confirmation of a specific successor: Tom Fisher, who had served as Indiana Solicitor General and had previously clerked for Kanne. When President Donald Trump, a Republican, ultimately declined to nominate Fisher following reported internal opposition from Vice President Mike Pence, Kanne rescinded his decision to take senior status in May 2018. He chose instead to remain as an active judge with a full caseload. Kanne continued in active service until his death on June 16, 2022, at the age of eighty-three. His seat on the Seventh Circuit remained vacant for more than a year and a half until Joshua P. Kolar was confirmed as his successor on January 30, 2024.

Jurisprudence and legacy

Kanne's work on the Seventh Circuit involved participation in numerous appeals across the full range of federal law, including criminal procedure, constitutional rights, and regulatory matters. In December 2017, he was part of a four-to-three en banc majority decision that reversed an earlier ruling by a federal magistrate judge regarding a confession. The case involved Brendan Dassey, who was sixteen years old at the time of his confession, and the question before the court was whether that confession had been unlawfully coerced. Kanne supported the majority's decision to reverse the magistrate's finding, though the dissenting judges described the outcome as a travesty of justice, reflecting the sharp division on the panel over the proper application of constitutional standards governing confessions.

In the area of reproductive rights and state regulation, Kanne participated in significant litigation concerning Indiana abortion laws. On August 27, 2019, he dissented when Judges David F. Hamilton and Ilana Rovner formed a majority to block a parental notification requirement that Indiana had sought to implement for minors seeking abortions. Kanne's dissent indicated his view that the requirement should have been upheld. The case, Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Inc., was subsequently considered for rehearing by the full Seventh Circuit. On November 1, 2019, the court denied rehearing by a vote of six to five, with Kanne again dissenting. He was joined in that dissent by Judges Joel Flaum, Amy Coney Barrett, Michael B. Brennan, and Michael Y. Scudder. Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote a separate concurrence urging the Supreme Court to review the case, and the Supreme Court did subsequently grant certiorari, demonstrating the national significance of the legal questions at issue.

Kanne's lengthy service on the Seventh Circuit, spanning from 1987 to 2022, placed him among the longer-serving judges in that court's history. His decision to remain in active service rather than take senior status meant that he continued to carry a full workload of cases until the end of his life, contributing to the court's resolution of appeals for thirty-five years. His career reflected a trajectory from local practice and state courts in Indiana through the federal district bench and ultimately to more than three decades shaping federal appellate law in the Seventh Circuit.