States Constitution, which allowed residents of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections. In 1962, before the Cuban Missile Crisis that began in October, Keating publicly cited a source who had informed him that the Soviet Union and Cuba had constructed intercontinental ballistic missile facilities in Cuba that could target the United States, and urged President John F. Kennedy to take action. After the CIA presented U-2 reconnaissance photographs of Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba to the National Security Council, President Kennedy told his secretary Kenny O'Donnell "Ken Keating will probably be the next President of the United States." He also worked with the bipartisan coalition that achieved passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after it broke the filibuster organized by segregationist Democrats. During the 1964 Republican National Convention, Keating staged a walkout of the majority of the New York delegation after conservative Barry Goldwater won the presidential nomination. In the general election campaign, Keating refused to endorse Goldwater, and did not campaign for him in New York. Keating outperformed Goldwater on election day, but was defeated for reelection by the Democratic nominee, Robert F. Kennedy, who had established residency in New York shortly before becoming a candidate. Keating accused Kennedy of "carpetbagging", but Democratic strength in what proved to be a wave election nationwide was sufficient to propel Kennedy to victory. Later career Appeals court judge In 1965, Keating was elected to the New York Court of Appeals. He served until resigning in 1969. Though elected to a 14-year term, New York required judges to retire at age 70. Because he was in his 60s when elected, Keating desired to make a mark in what he anticipated would be a short tenure. As a result, in his brief time on the bench, he authored more than 100 opinions. Keating's judicial philosophy was that precedent was binding, but only to the extent that it made sense in the context of the current case and times; he disagreed with following precedent for its own sake. He also disagreed with the concept of distinguishing cases if the effect of the court's decision was to overrule them. In Keating's view, if a precedent was to be overturned, it should simply be overturned; attempts to distinguish cases by parsing language or selectively picking and choosing case details were confusing to attorneys and judges because they amounted to dishonest reasoning.