Judge Kennedy Praised by ABA

WASHINGTON — Judge Anthony M. Kennedy was praised today by the American Bar Assn., which gave him its highest rating, as someone whose integrity, temperament and intellectual abilities make him highly qualified to be a Supreme Court justice.

“No one (on the ABA’s review panel) doubted his integrity or intellectual ability,” ABA leader Harold R. Tyler Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee at its third day of hearings on the nomination. He also said Kennedy’s past membership in private clubs that excluded women was not viewed by them as a factor that would disqualify him.