Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy lamented the lack of civic education in American schools, referring to the situation as a "crisis" during his conversation with OU president David Boren Thursday at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center.

Kennedy recounted an experience with rising law students in Poland. The students, he said, had just graduated high school and asked advanced questions about the American Constitution, including system of checks and balances, federalism and the popularity of judicial opinions at the beginning of the Constitution. Kennedy said the Polish students studied the American Constitution from the fourth grade on, in preparation for the day communism would end and Poland could write its own constitution.

"Civics [in American schools] is usually taught by the same one who teaches drivers ed," Kennedy said, "and usually with the same result. …you cannot preserve what you do not revere, you cannot protect what you do not understand, you cannot defend what you do not know."

Boren brought up Kennedy's position as often having to be the deciding vote when the court faces close cases. He said Kennedy had been in the majority more than 2/3 of the time in the last three years when the court decided a case five votes to four.

"The cases swing, I don't," Kennedy said.

Boren said Kennedy was the last Supreme Court justice confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Kennedy's nomination was Reagan' third for the same Court seat, after both Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsburg's nominations failed. Boren asked Kennedy about the confirmation process, and the overly partisan tone it has taken for recent nominees of both Republican and Democratic presidents

"It is troubling," Kennedy said. "It's just a subset of the larger problem of lack of civility in our … system. Remember, democracy presumes that there's rational, dispassionate, civil, decent discussion. And maybe we can use this as one of the beachheads to improve. I'm concerned that qualified judges will not want to be considered for places on the federal bench, and that would be a disaster."

Kennedy also touched on the influence of foreign and international law on modern-day American jurisprudence. After Boren said that a recent proposed Congressional resolution called for the removal of a judge who even discussed non-American law in his or her decision-making.

Kennedy called those people who did not believe American judges should even consider references to foreign or international legal opinions "modern-day know nothings."

He said that when the Supreme Court considered Roper v. Simmons, a case involving the constitutionality of executing people who committed capital murder before they turned 18, the Court noted only Sudan and China allowed such executions.

"We didn't say [foreign law] was controlling at all," Kennedy said. "The last time I looked, Plato was a foreign author. And the Bible. I'm not supposed to read that? I'm not supposed to learn from it?"

Boren asked Kennedy about the effect the War on Terror and the focus on national security after 9/11 had on the Court and its consideration of cases involving terror suspects.

"Our best security is in the world of ideas, and America must always stand for the proposition that it believes that freedom will prevail," Kennedy said.

Kennedy's visit is part of the OU College of Law's Centennial celebration. He taught a Constitutional Law class to first-year students Thursday morning, and conducted a question-and-answer session with second and third-year law students Thursday afternoon. Kennedy will remain in Norman Friday morning to talk to students at OU's Honors College.