Michael Stephen Kanne

Born in Rensselaer, Indiana, Kanne received a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University Bloomington in 1962.[1] He served as a lieutenant in the United States Air Force from 1962 to 1965.[2] He then received a Juris Doctor from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1968.[3]

He was in private practice in Rensselaer, Indiana from 1968 to 1972, working as a city attorney for the City of Rensselaer in 1972.[4] He was a judge on the 30th Judicial Circuit of Indiana[5] 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.[6]

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 blocked a parental notification requirement for abortions in Indiana.[7] The 7th circuit denied rehearing 6-5 on November 1, 2019, with Kanne dissenting again, joined by Joel Flaum, Amy Coney Barrett, Michael B. Brennan, and Michael Y. Scudder. Frank Easterbrook wrote a concurrence calling on the Supreme Court to take up the case.[8]

On December 4, 1981, Kanne was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana vacated by Judge Phil McClellan McNagny Jr..[9] Kanne was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 8, 1982, and received his commission on February 9, 1982.[6] During a prosecution of the New Chicago Police chief in Kanne's court, he quipped that New Chicago is the "most corrupt square mile in America."[10] His service terminated on May 21, 1987, due to elevation to the Seventh Circuit.

On February 2, 1987, Reagan nominated Kanne to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge Jesse E. Eschbach.[11] Kanne was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 19, 1987, and received his commission on May 20, 1987.[12][6] On June 7, 2017, Representative Louie Gohmert (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."[13]

• Michael Stephen Kanne at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

• 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.