An inter frame is a frame in a video compression stream which is expressed in terms of one or more neighboring frames. The "inter" part of the term refers to the use of Inter frame prediction. This kind of prediction tries to take advantage from temporal redundancy between neighboring frames enabling higher compression rates.

Inter frame prediction
An inter coded frame is divided into blocks known as macroblocks. After that, instead of directly encoding the raw pixel values for each block, the encoder will try to find a block similar to the one it is encoding on a previously encoded frame, referred to as a reference frame. This process is done by a block matching algorithm. If the encoder succeeds on its search, the block could be encoded by a vector, known as motion vector, which points to the position of the matching block at the reference frame. The process of motion vector determination is called motion estimation.

In most cases the encoder will succeed, but the block found is likely not an exact match to the block it is encoding. This is why the encoder will compute the differences between them. Those residual values are known as the prediction error and need to be transformed and sent to the decoder.

To sum up, if the encoder succeeds in finding a matching block on a reference frame, it will obtain a motion vector pointing to the matched block and a prediction error. Using both elements, the decoder will be able to recover the raw pixels of the block. The following image shows the whole process graphically:

This kind of prediction has some pros and cons:
 If everything goes fine, the algorithm will be able to find a matching block with little prediction error so that, once transformed, the overall size of motion vector plus prediction error is lower than the size of a raw encoding.
 If the block matching algorithm fails to find a suitable match the prediction error will be considerable. Thus the overall size of motion vector plus prediction error will be greater than the raw encoding. In this case the encoder would make an exception and send a raw encoding for that specific block.
 If the matched block at the reference frame has also been encoded using Inter frame prediction, the errors made for its encoding will be propagated to the next block. If every frame was encoded using this technique, there would be no way for a decoder to synchronize to a video stream because it would be impossible to obtain the reference images.

Because of these drawbacks, a reliable and time periodic reference frame must be used for this technique to be efficient and useful. That reference frame is known as Intra-frame, which is strictly intra coded, so it can always be decoded without additional information.

In most designs, there are two types of inter frames: P-frames and B-frames. These two kinds of frames and the I-frames (Intra-coded pictures) usually join in a GOP (Group Of Pictures). The I-frame doesn't need additional information to be decoded and it can be used as a reliable reference. This structure also allows to achieve an I-frame periodicity, which is needed for decoder synchronization.

Frame types
The difference between P-frames and B-frames is the reference frame they are allowed to use.

P-frame
P-frame is the term used to define the forward Predicted pictures. The prediction is made from an earlier picture, mainly an I-frame or P-frame, so that require less coding data (≈50% when compared to I-frame size).

The amount of data needed for doing this prediction consist of motion vectors and transform coefficients describing prediction correction. It involves the use of motion compensation.

B-frame
B-frame is the term for bidirectionally predicted pictures. This kind of prediction method occupies less coding data than P-frames generally (≈25% when compared to I-frame size) because the prediction is made from either an earlier frame or a later frame or both them. (B-frames can also be less efficient than P-frames under certain cases, e.g.: lossless encoding)

Similar to P-frames, B-frames are expressed as motion vectors and transform coefficients.
In order to avoid a growing propagation error, B-frames are not used as a reference to make further predictions in most encoding standards. However, in newer encoding methods (such as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC), B-frames may be used as reference for better exploitation of temporal redundancy.

Typical Group Of Pictures (GOP) structure

The typical Group of pictures (GOP) structure is IBBPBBP... The I-frame is used to predict the first P-frame and these two frames are also used to predict the first and the second B-frames. The second P-frame is predicted also using the first I-frame. Both P-frames join to predict the third and fourth B-frames. The scheme is shown in the next picture:

This structure suggests a problem because the fourth frame (a P-frame) is needed in order to predict the second and the third (B-frames). So we need to transmit the P-frame before the B-frames and it will delay the transmission (it will be necessary to keep the P-frame).

This structure has strong points:
 It minimizes the problem of possible uncovered areas.
 P-frames and B-frames need less data than I-frames, so less data is transmitted.

But it has weak points:
 It increases the complexity of the decoder, which can mean more memory needed to rearrange the frames, and a tiny bit more processing power.
 B-frames may introduce decoding dependency which inevitably increases decoding latency.

H.264 Inter frame prediction improvements
The most important improvements of this technique in regard to previous H.264 standard are:
More flexible block partition
Resolution of up to ¼ pixel motion compensation
Multiple references
Enhanced Direct/Skip Macroblock

More flexible block partition
Luminance block partition of 16×16 (MPEG-2), 16×8, 8×16, and 8×8. The last case allows the division of the block into new blocks of 4×8, 8×4, or 4×4.

The frame to be coded is divided into blocks of equal size as shown in the picture above. Each block prediction will be blocks of the same size as the reference pictures, offset by a small displacement.

Resolution of up to ¼ pixel motion compensation
Pixels at half-pixel position are obtained by applying a filter of length 6.

H=[1 -5 20 20 -5 1]

For example:

b=A - 5B + 20C + 20D - 5E + F

Pixels at quarter-pixel position are obtained by bilinear interpolation.

While MPEG-2 allowed a ½ pixel resolution, Inter frame allows up to ¼ pixel resolution. That means that it is possible to search a block in the frame to be coded in other reference frames, or we can interpolate nonexistent pixels to find blocks that are even better suited to the current block. If motion vector is an integer number of units of samples, that means it is possible to find in reference pictures the compensated block in motion. If motion vector is not an integer, the prediction will be obtained from interpolated pixels by an interpolator filter to horizontal and vertical directions.

Multiple references
Multiple references to motion estimation allows finding the best reference in 2 possible buffers (List 0 to past pictures, List 1 to future pictures) which contain up to 16 frames in total. Block prediction is done by a weighted sum of blocks from the reference picture. It allows enhanced picture quality in scenes where there are changes of plane, zoom, or when new objects are revealed.

Enhanced Direct/Skip Macroblock
Skip and Direct Mode are very frequently used, especially with B-frames. They significantly reduce the number of bits to be coded. These modes are referred to when a block is coded without sending residual error or motion vectors. The encoder will only record that it is a Skip Macroblock. The decoder will deduce the motion vector of Direct/Skip Mode coded block from other blocks already decoded.

There are two ways to deduce the motion:

 Temporal It uses the block motion vector from List 1 frame, located at the same position to deduce the motion vector. List 1 block uses a List 0 block as reference.
 Spatial It predicts the movement from neighbour macroblocks in same frame. A possible criterion could be to copy the motion vector from a neighboring block. These modes are used in uniform zones of the picture where there is not much movement.

In the figure above, pink blocks are Direct/Skip Mode coded blocks. As we can see, they are used very frequently, mainly in B-frames.

Additional information
Although the use of the term "frame" is common in informal usage, in many cases (such as in international standards for video coding by MPEG and VCEG) a more general concept is applied by using the word "picture" rather than "frame", where a picture can either be a complete frame or a single interlaced field.

Video codecs such as MPEG-2, H.264 or Ogg Theora reduce the amount of data in a stream by following key frames with one or more inter frames.  These frames can typically be encoded using a lower bit rate than is needed for key frames because much of the image is ordinarily similar, so only the changing parts need to be coded.

See also
Video compression picture types

References

 Software H.264: http://iphome.hhi.de/suehring/tml/download/
 T.Wiegand, G.J. Sullivan, G. Bjøntegaard, A.Luthra: Overview of the H.264/AVC Video Coding Standard. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 13, No. 7, July 2003

Film and video technology
Compression algorithms

Inter frame


Fritz Wunderlich (born Kusel, Rhineland-Palatinate, 26 September 1930; died Heidelberg,  17 September 1966) was a German tenor.  He was one of the great singers of his time, famous both as an opera singer and as a recitalist singing Lieder.

Wunderlich came from a musical family.  His mother was a violinist and his father was a choir-master. The family did not find it easy to make a living, especially after Fritz's father committed suicide when Fritz was five years old.  As a young man Wunderlich worked in a bakery.  People heard him singing while he worked, and he was persuaded to study music.  He got a scholarship to study at the Freiburg College of Music where he studied French horn and singing.

Wunderlich soon became known as a brilliant young tenor.  He sang several roles in Mozart's operas, and gradually learned roles in many other operas, including Verdi's Rigoletto and Don Carlo.  There is an excellent recording of Mozart's Magic Flute in which Wunderlich sings the part of the Prince Tamino and the famous baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings the part of Papageno, the birdcatcher.

Wunderlich had a lovely, clear voice which was excellent for German Lieder.  He sang the great songs of Schubert and Schumann, especially Schumann's Dichterliebe song cycle.

Wunderlich was becoming world famous when he died from an accident: he fell down the stairs of a friend's hunting house and died just before his 36th birthday.

Other website
Website of the Fritz Wunderlich Gesellschaft

1930 births
1966 deaths
German singers
German opera singers
People from Rhineland-Palatinate
Tenors

Fritz Wunderlich


The concept of Cascadian bioregionalism is closely identified with the environmental movement. In the early 1970s, the contemporary vision of bioregionalism began to be formed through collaboration between natural scientists, social and environmental activists, artists and writers, community leaders, and back-to-the-landers who worked directly with natural resources. A bioregion is defined in terms of the unique overall pattern of natural characteristics that are found in a specific place. The main features are generally obvious throughout a continuous geographic terrain and include a particular climate, local aspects of seasons, landforms, watersheds, soils, and native plants and animals. People are also counted as an integral aspect of a locale's life, as can be seen in the ecologically adaptive cultures of early inhabitants, and in the activities of present-day reinhabitants who attempt to harmonize in a sustainable way with the place where they live.

The Cascadia bioregion contains 75 distinct ecoregions, and extends for more than  from the Copper River in Southern Alaska, to Cape Mendocino, approximately 200 miles north of San Francisco, and east as far as the Yellowstone Caldera and continental divide. Cascadian bioregionalism deals with the connected ecological, environmental, economic, and cultural ties that are prevalent throughout the U.S. Pacific Northwest and distance the area from their eastern counterparts. The argument is that those in Washington and Oregon in the United States have much more in common with those in British Columbia, Canada, than those in Washington D.C.

The Cascadia Bioregion is also referred to as the Pacific Northwest Bioregion and encompasses all of the state of Washington, all but the southeastern corner of Idaho, and portions of Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia. Bioregions are geographically based areas defined by land or soil composition, watershed, climate, flora, and fauna. The Cascadia Bioregion claims the entire watershed of the Columbia River (as far as the Continental Divide), as well as the Cascade Range from Northern California well into Canada. It's also considered to include the associated ocean and seas and their ecosystems out to the continental slope. The delineation of a bioregion has environmental stewardship as its primary goal, with the belief that political boundaries should match ecological and cultural boundaries.

The area from Vancouver, B.C. down to Portland, Oregon has been termed a megaregion by the U.S. and Canadian governments, especially along the 'Cascadian Corridor'. Megaregions are defined as areas where "boundaries begin to blur, creating a new scale of geography now known as the megaregion. These areas have interlocking economic systems, shared natural resources, and ecosystems, and common transportation systems link these population centers together. This area contains 17% of Cascadian land mass, but more than 80% of the Cascadian population. The Canada–US border is diminishing in the face of further economic, political and cultural integration with such programs as the enhanced drivers license program – which can be used to get across the Canada–US border between Washington and British Columbia.

History of Cascadian bioregionalism
The term "Cascades" was first used for the Cascades Rapids, as early as the Astor Expedition. The earliest attested use of the term for the mountain range dates to 1825, in the writings of botanist David Douglas. During geological explorations in the early 1900s the term was first applied to the region. The name 'Cascadia' was first used by the town Cascadia, Oregon that was settled in 1890 in what is now Linn County.

The name "Cascadia" was first applied to the whole geologic region by Bates McKee in his 1972 geology textbook Cascadia; the geologic evolution of the Pacific Northwest. Later the name was adopted by David McCloskey, a Seattle University sociology professor, to describe it as a bioregion. McCloskey describes Cascadia as "a land of falling waters." He notes the blending of the natural integrity and the sociocultural unity that gives Cascadia its definition.

McCloskey is the source of the proposed Cascadian boundaries that include the complete watershed of the Columbia River, including the territories of what is now Idaho, western Montana, and smaller parts of Wyoming, Utah, and northern Nevada.

According to McCloskey, this "initial" Cascadia included parts of seven jurisdictions (Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Western Montana, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska), running from the northernmost reaches of Southeast Alaska in the north to Cape Mendocino, California in the south–and covering all the land and "falling waters" from the continental divide at the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. McCloskey, founder of the Cascadia Institute and co‐chair of Seattle University's New Ecological Studies Program, saw Cascadian identity as something which transcends political or geographic definitions; it is more a cultural, ideological identity.

Bioregionalism as a general principle

Because it is a cultural idea, the description of a specific bioregion is drawn using information from not only the natural sciences but also many other sources. It is a geographic terrain and a terrain of consciousness. Anthropological studies, historical accounts, social developments, customs, traditions, and arts can all play a part. Bioregionalism utilizes them to accomplish three main goals:

 restore and maintain local natural systems;
 practice sustainable ways to satisfy basic human needs such as food, water, shelter, and materials; and
 support the work of reinhabitation.

The latter is accomplished through proactive projects, employment and education, as well as by engaging in protests against the destruction of natural elements in a life-place.

Bioregional goals play out in a spectrum of different ways for different places. In North America, for example, restoring native prairie grasses is a basic ecosystem-rebuilding activity for reinhabitants of the Kansas Area Watershed Bioregion in the Midwest, whereas bringing back salmon runs has a high priority for Shasta Bioregion in northern California. Using geothermal and wind as a renewable energy source fits Cascadia Bioregion in the rainy Pacific Northwest. Less cloudy skies in the Southwest's sparsely vegetated Sonoran Desert Bioregion make direct solar energy a more plentiful alternative there. Education about local natural characteristics and conditions varies diversely from place to place, along with bioregionally significant social and political issues.

There is a strong affinity for bioregional thinking in many fields that relate to ecological sustainability.

In the early 1970s, the contemporary vision of bioregionalism began to be formed through collaboration between natural scientists, social and environmental activists, artists and writers, community leaders, and back-to-the-landers who worked directly with natural resources. They wanted to do "more than just save what's left" in regard to nature, wildness and the biosphere. During the 1970s, Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco became a voice for this sentiment through its publications about applying place-based ideas to environmental practices, society, cultural expressions, philosophy, politics, and other subjects. By the late 70s, bioregional organizations such as the Frisco Bay Mussel Group in northern California and Ozark Area Community Congress on the Kansas-Missouri border were founded to articulate local economic, social, political, and cultural agendas. The Mussel Group eventually played a pivotal role in persuading the public to vote down a bioregionally lethal Peripheral Canal proposal to divert fresh water away from San Francisco Bay. The Ozarks group has held continuous annual gatherings to promote and support place-based activities. At present there are hundreds of similar groups (and publications) in North and South America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

There is a strong affinity for bioregional thinking in many fields that relate to ecological sustainability. Restoration ecology practitioners readily grasp the importance of an appreciative local culture for their efforts to revive native plants and animals. Urban ecology advocates use bioregions for "nesting" their redesigned cities in a broad natural context. Permaculturalists and most organic farmers employ techniques that are appropriate to their particular locales and insist on maintaining soils, water sources, and native species. Poets, painters, theater groups, and other artists have embraced bioregional themes in their works. Grade school teachers introduce bioregional concepts, and graduate schools recognize theses and dissertations based on them. Followers of Deep Ecology claim bioregionalists as a social manifestation of their biocentric philosophy. Even traditional conservation and environmental groups including the Sierra Club have subsequent to the inception of bioregionalism adopted a system of"ecoregions" to address members' problems in home areas.

Bioregionalists are primarily concerned with their own local areas. There are a surprisingly large number of opportunities to address everyday living conditions for the benefit of local sustainability; as wide-ranging as resident-based reforestation projects in rural areas and community gardens in cities. Their influence is felt most strongly on county and city levels because this is where they take place and are most visible. Watershed-based organizations with bioregional priorities for basins as small as a creek or as large as the Great Lakes are a steadily growing phenomenon. Their recommendations to boards, councils, and other agencies aren't limited to creek restoration, water conservation, and other obvious issues, but may also include redrawing political borders to fit watershed lines and adopting ecological urban plans.

Ecoregions of Cascadia

Ecoregions are the rooms in the house of a bioregion. Ecoregion is short-hand for regional ecosystem. An ecoregion is a relatively similar area united by common geography, ecology, and culture. Ecoregions are distinct places which help articulate the internal diversity of a large and complex region such as Cascadia.

The purpose of ecoregional mapping is two-fold: one, to provide a common, integrative framework for management of natural resources, and two, for deeper social identification with the land and each other, and thus, better political organization. An ecoregion is known in two ways: internally by its distinctive character (e.g. the Okanogan Highlands), and externally by its context in the region (e.g. Okanogan in relation to the Columbia Plateau).

An ecoregion may be analyzed on physical, biological, and cultural levels. First, we map the landforms, geology, climate, and hydrology, and how these environmental factors work together to create a common template for life in that particular place. Second, we map the flora and fauna, especially the characteristic vegetative communities, and link them to their habitats. Third, we look at native peoples, western settlement, and current land-use patterns and problems, in interaction with the first two levels.

Each layer of information is brought together to represent the regional system. No one single factor (e.g. climate) explains everything. The inner structure of an ecoregion is organized as a series of intersecting gradients; temperature and precipitation changing with elevation, in alternating belts of vegetation along windward and leeward sides of a parallel series of mountain ranges, with biodiversity thinning toward the edges. Such flows of energy, matter, and information form a distinctive matrix. To understand the region, we must comprehend this system of relationships.

Boundaries are natural, and often found as soft transitional areas rather than hard-edged political lines on a map. The boundary is a convergent threshold where many layers intersect, located where several significant factors end and begin. Borders articulate the natural envelope of the place–its centers and bounds–and link this diversity into the larger world.

Since ecological systems are open and lack definite boundaries, in complex terrain, watersheds are often used to represent ecosystems on a landscape level. Here, ecoregions are often drawn as a series of contiguous watersheds with similar character and context. However, where other factors predominate–such as landforms, tectonic suites, regional rivers, vegetative breaks, or major cultural boundaries–then watershed lines may be crossed. In each case, the key is to be true to the land and its people. In terms of size, an ecoregion is larger than a watershed and smaller than a bioregion; or in political terms, larger than a county and smaller than a state or province. There are over 75 ecoregions in the more than 750,000 square miles of Cascadia. Thus, they average about 10,000 square miles each, though ranging from 2,000 to over 30,000 square miles; again, size depends upon the unique character and context of the place itself. An ecoregion in Cascadia often covers several degrees of latitude and perhaps longitude.

In politics
Cascadian bioregionalism also forms the basis for several different independence groups such as the Cascadia Bioregional Party throughout the Pacific Northwest, which base their boundaries on the bioregion of Cascadia. For more information, see Cascadia (independence movement).

See also
Ecotopia
North American inland temperate rainforest

References

External links
Dreams of a Unified Northwest Are Halted At the Border New York Times article by William Yardley, February 27, 2010.
Cascadiabioregion.org, website with extensive Cascadia related facts and figures, in popular culture, and explanations of the watershed and bioregion.
The Cascadia Institute.org, the website belonging to Dr. David McCloskey, professor emeritus at Seattle University, and creator of both the first map of Cascadia (1988), and the newest map of Cascadia (2015), to be featured in volume 30 of the ESRI Map Book .
Free Cascadia.org, the website belonging to Alexander Baretich, designer of the Cascadian flag, and advocate of Bioregionalism.
Cascadia Bioregional Party

Ecoregions of North America

Ecoregions of Canada
Ecoregions of the United States

Cascadia (bioregion)


Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and sworn in on February 18, 1988. After the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, he was considered the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court's 5–4 decisions.

Born in Sacramento, California, Kennedy took over his father's legal practice in Sacramento after graduating from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Kennedy became a U.S. federal judge in 1975 when President Gerald Ford appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In November 1987, after two failed attempts at nominating a successor to Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., President Reagan nominated Kennedy to the Supreme Court. Kennedy won unanimous confirmation from the United States Senate in February 1988. Following the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016, Kennedy became the senior associate justice of the court; he remained the senior associate justice until his July 2018 retirement. Kennedy retired during the presidency of Donald Trump and was succeeded by his former law clerk, Brett Kavanaugh.

Kennedy authored the majority opinion in several important cases—including Boumediene v. Bush, Citizens United v. FEC, and four major gay rights cases: Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges. He also co-authored the controlling opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey along with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter.

Early life and education
Kennedy was born and raised in an Irish Catholic family in Sacramento, California. He was the son of Anthony J. Kennedy, an attorney with a reputation for influence in the California State Legislature, and Gladys (née McLeod), who participated in many local civic activities. As a boy, Kennedy came into contact with prominent politicians of the day, such as California Governor and future Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren. As a young man, Kennedy served as a page in the California State Senate. Kennedy attended C. K. McClatchy High School, where he was an honors student and graduated in 1954.

Following in his mother's footsteps, Kennedy enrolled at Stanford University where he developed an interest in constitutional law. After spending his senior year at the London School of Economics, Kennedy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Kennedy then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor of Laws cum laude.

Early career
Kennedy was in private practice in San Francisco from 1961 to 1963. In 1963, following his father's death, he took over his father's Sacramento practice, which he operated until 1975. From 1965 to 1988, he was a professor of constitutional law at McGeorge School of Law, at the University of the Pacific.

During Kennedy's time as a California law professor and attorney, he helped California Governor Ronald Reagan draft a state tax proposal.

Kennedy served in the California Army National Guard from 1961 to 1962 and became a private first class. He was on the board of the Federal Judicial Center from 1987 to 1988. He also served on two committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States: the Advisory Panel on Financial Disclosure Reports and Judicial Activities (subsequently renamed the Advisory Committee on Codes of Conduct) from 1979 to 1987, and the Committee on Pacific Territories from 1979 to 1990, which he chaired from 1982 to 1990.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
On March 3, 1975, upon Reagan's recommendation, President Gerald Ford nominated Kennedy to the seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that had been vacated by Charles Merton Merrill. Kennedy was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 20 and received his commission on March 24, 1975.

Supreme Court of the United States

Nomination and confirmation
In July 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court seat vacated by Lewis F. Powell Jr., who had announced his retirement in late June. However, he was rejected 42–58 by the Senate on October 23. The president's next nominee, Douglas Ginsburg, withdrew his name from consideration on November 7 after admitting to marijuana use, and Senate Judiciary Committee member Patrick Leahy said that if Reagan's next nominee was unacceptable to Senate Democrats, they would refuse hearings for any candidate until after the 1988 presidential election.

On November 11, 1987, Reagan nominated Anthony Kennedy to fill Powell's seat. Kennedy was then subjected to an unprecedentedly thorough investigation of his background, which did not uncover any information that would hinder his nomination.

In a Ninth Circuit dissent that Kennedy wrote before joining the Supreme Court, he criticized police for bribing a child into showing them where the child's mother hid drugs. Considering such conduct offensive and destructive of the family, Kennedy wrote that "indifference to personal liberty is but the precursor of the state's hostility to it." Kennedy wrote an article the year before, however, about judicial restraint, and the following excerpt from it was read aloud by Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Taskforce, at his confirmation hearing:

Kennedy said about Griswold v. Connecticut, a privacy case about the use of contraceptives, "I really think I would like to draw the line and not talk about the Griswold case so far as its reasoning or its result." He also discussed "a zone of liberty, a zone of protection, a line that's drawn where the individual can tell the Government, 'Beyond this line you may not go.

His hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee began on December 14, and lasted just three consecutive days. When the Senate voted on Kennedy's nomination, he received bipartisan support. Maureen Hoch of PBS wrote that he "virtually sailed through the confirmation process and was widely viewed by conservatives and liberals alike as balanced and fair". The U.S. Senate confirmed him on February 3, 1988, by a vote of 97 to 0. Absent from the vote were three Democrats: Paul Simon and Al Gore were campaigning and Joe Biden was ill. Attorney General Edwin Meese presented Kennedy's commission to the court in a swearing-in ceremony on February 18, 1988.

Tenure and analysis
Although appointed by a Republican president, Kennedy was not easily pigeonholed ideologically; he had a reputation for looking at cases individually instead of deciding them on the basis of a rigid ideology. Vanity Fair quoted several former Supreme Court clerks as indicating that they believe Kennedy was often swayed by the opinions of his clerks, including his ruling on Planned Parenthood v. Casey. One clerk derisively stated that "the premise is that he can't think by himself, and that he can be manipulated by someone in his second year of law school". This notion also led the Federalist Society to target Kennedy with more conservative clerks, believing this would make Kennedy more conservative. Two of his former clerks, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, eventually became Supreme Court justices. Conservative pundit George Will and Georgetown University Law Center professor Randy Barnett have described Kennedy's jurisprudence as "libertarian", although other legal scholars have disagreed.

Kennedy issued conservative rulings during most of his tenure, having voted with William Rehnquist as often as any other justice from 1992 to the end of the Rehnquist Court in 2005. In his first term on the Court, Kennedy voted with Rehnquist 92 percent of the time—more than any other justice. Before becoming the median justice on the court in 2006, Kennedy sided with conservatives during close rulings 75 percent of the time. However, Kennedy was also known for siding with the court's liberal justices on high-profile social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. Kennedy was known as a swing vote on the court, and this reputation became more pronounced after the 2005 retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (who had previously been known as the court's primary swing vote). Kennedy, who was slightly more conservative than former Justice O'Connor was on issues of race, religion, and abortion, intensely disliked being labeled a "swing vote" in public. However, interviews with former clerks indicate that, behind the scenes, he relished his role as the deciding vote, to the point that some of them expressed a belief that he would pretend to waver on votes when he had, in fact, already made up his mind.

On the Roberts Court, Kennedy often decided the outcome of cases. In the 2008–2009 term, he was in the majority 92 percent of the time. In the 23 decisions in which the justices split 5-to-4, Kennedy was in the majority in all but five. Of those 23 decisions, 16 were strictly along ideological lines, and Kennedy joined the conservative wing of the court 11 times; the liberals, five. In the 2010–2011 term, 16 cases were decided by a 5–4 vote; Kennedy joined the majority in 14 of the decisions.

Following the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016, Kennedy became the Senior Associate Justice of the court and the last appointed by President Reagan; he remained the Senior Associate Justice until his retirement. Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court and made the transition to senior status effective July 31, 2018.

He has the distinction of being the only Supreme Court Justice to have two former clerks of his be appointed to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Conservative criticism
According to legal reporter Jan Crawford, Kennedy attracted the ire of conservatives when he did not vote with his more conservative colleagues. In 2005, Tom DeLay criticized Kennedy for his reliance on international law and for conducting his own Internet research, calling him a judicial activist. According to legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, some conservatives viewed Kennedy's pro-gay-rights and pro-choice rulings as betrayals. According to Crawford, the "bitter" quality of some movement conservatives' views on Kennedy stems from his eventual rethinking of positions on abortion, religion, and the death penalty (which Kennedy believes cannot be constitutionally applied to juveniles or intellectually disabled people).

A short 2008 law review article by retired lawyer Douglas M. Parker in The Green Bag charged that much of the criticism of Kennedy was based upon "pop psychology" rather than careful analysis of his opinions. Kennedy himself responds to concerns about judicial activism this way: "An activist court is a court that makes a decision you don't like."

Internationalism
According to The New Yorker staff writer Jeffrey Toobin, starting in 2003, Kennedy became a leading proponent of the use of foreign and international law as an aid to interpreting the United States Constitution. Toobin sees this consideration of foreign law as the biggest factor behind Kennedy's occasional breaking with his most conservative colleagues. The use of foreign law in Supreme Court opinions dates back to at least 1829, though according to Toobin, its use in interpreting the Constitution on "basic questions of individual liberties" began only in the late 1990s.

Defending his use of international law, in 2005 Kennedy told Toobin, "Why should world opinion care that the American Administration wants to bring freedom to oppressed peoples? Is that not because there's some underlying common mutual interest, some underlying common shared idea, some underlying common shared aspiration, underlying unified concept of what human dignity means? I think that's what we're trying to tell the rest of the world, anyway."

A 2008 profile of Kennedy in the Los Angeles Times focused on his internationalist perspective. According to David Savage, Kennedy had become a strong proponent of interpreting the guarantees of liberty and equality in line with modern human rights law: "lawyers and judges have come to believe the basic principles of human rights are common to the peoples of world ."

Jurisprudence

Abortion

In Hodgson v. Minnesota, 497 U.S. 417 (1990), Kennedy voted to uphold a restriction on abortion for minors that required both parents to be notified about the procedure.

Kennedy joined O'Connor's plurality opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which reaffirmed in principle (though without many details) the Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the right to abortion under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plurality opinion, signed jointly by three justices appointed by Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, ignited a firestorm of criticism from conservatives. Kennedy had stated at least as early as 1989 that, in order to uphold precedent, he might not vote to overturn Roe. According to Court insiders, Kennedy had reportedly considered overturning Roe, but in the end decided to uphold restrictions while affirming the Roe precedent.

In later abortion decisions, it became apparent that Kennedy thought Casey had narrowed Roe and allowed more restrictions. Owing to the Court's altered composition under President Clinton, Kennedy was no longer the fifth vote to strike down abortion restrictions. Hence, O'Connor became the justice who defined the meaning of Casey in subsequent cases, while Kennedy was relegated to dissents in which he sought to explain what he thought Casey meant. For example, Kennedy dissented in the 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart, which struck down laws criminalizing partial-birth abortion.

After the judicial appointments made by President George W. Bush, Kennedy again became the needed fifth vote to strike down abortion restrictions. Since Kennedy's conception of abortion rights was narrower than O'Connor's, the court became slightly more supportive of abortion restrictions after 2006. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007), which held that a federal law criminalizing partial-birth abortion did not violate Casey because it did not impose an "undue burden" upon the exercise of abortion rights. The decision did not expressly overrule Stenberg, although many commentators saw it as having that effect.

First amendment rights of contractors
O'Hare Truck Service, Inc. was a towing company employed under contract by the City of Northlake in northern Illinois. Northlake removed O'Hare from its list on towing companies because the company's owner did not support Northlake's mayoral candidate in his reelection campaign: instead, the owner supported an opposition candidate. The Supreme Court held, in a majority 7:2 opinion written by Kennedy, (O'Hare Truck Service, Inc. v. City of Northlake) that independent contractors such as O'Hare are entitled to the same First Amendment protections as those afforded to government employees. Accordingly, Northlake could not base the towing company's employment on its political affiliations or beliefs unless the city could demonstrate that their political affiliations "had a reasonable and appreciable effect on its job performance". The Court held that Northlake neither attempted nor would it have been able to make such a demonstration. Therefore, Northlake's removal of O'Hare Truck Service from its employment list was unconstitutional.

Capital punishment

With the Court's majority in Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons, Kennedy agreed that the execution of the mentally ill and those under 18 at the time of the crime was unconstitutional. In Kansas v. Marsh, however, he declined to join the dissent, which questioned the overall "soundness" of the existing capital punishment system.

In 2008, Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana. The opinion, joined by the court's four more liberal justices, held, "[t]he Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death." The opinion went on to state that "there is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual persons, even including child rape, on the other. The latter crimes may be devastating in their harm, as here, but in 'terms of moral depravity and of the injury to the person and to the public' . . . they cannot be compared to murder in their 'severity and irrevocability.'" The opinion concluded that in cases of crimes against individuals, "the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim's life was not taken."

Environment

Kennedy wrote the majority decision in Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (2009), which involved an Alaskan mining company that planned to extract new gold from a mine that had been closed for decades using a technique known as "froth-flotation". This technique would produce approximately 4.5 million tons of "slurry", a thick waste product laced with toxic elements such as lead and mercury. The company intended to dispose of the waste in a nearby lake, which would eventually decrease the depth of the lake by fifty feet and flood the surrounding land with contaminated water. While federal law forbids "[t]he use of any river, lake, stream or ocean as a waste treatment system", Kennedy's decision stated that pollutants are exempt from this law so long as they have "the effect of ... changing the bottom elevation of water". Justice Ginsburg's dissent stated that such a reading of federal law "strains credulity" because it allows "[w]hole categories of regulated industries" to "gain immunity from a variety of pollution-control standards".

Gay rights and homosexuality

Kennedy's concept of liberty has included protections for sexual orientation. While Kennedy was an appeals-court judge, he wrote a decision in Beller v. Middendorf (9th Cir. 1980) that noted that some homosexual behavior may be constitutionally protected — yet upheld the military's policy of discharging service members on the basis of homosexuality. He later wrote the Supreme Court's opinion in Romer v. Evans (1996), invalidating a provision in the Colorado Constitution excluding homosexuals from any state or local anti-discrimination protections. He wrote the Court's opinion in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which invalidated criminal laws against homosexual sodomy on the basis of the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, overturning the Court's previous ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986). In both cases, he sided with the more liberal members of the Court. He wrote that the Court had misread the historical record regarding laws criminalizing homosexual relations in Bowers, stating that further research showed that American anti-sodomy laws had historically been directed at "nonprocreative sexual activity more generally," rather than specifically at homosexual acts. Combined with the fact that such laws had often gone unenforced, the Court saw this as constituting a tradition of avoiding interference with private sexual activity between consenting adults. He also said that the reasoning behind Bowers was not widely accepted in American law (pointing, for example, to the Model Penal Code's recommendations starting in 1955) and that it had been rejected by most other developed Western countries (as in the Wolfenden Report of 1957 and a 1981 decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Case 7525/76, Dudgeon v United Kingdom). As a result, Kennedy stated that there was a jurisprudential basis for thinking that "an integral part of human freedom" is allowing consenting adults to choose to privately engage in sexual activity.

In the 2000 case of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, Kennedy voted, with four other justices, to uphold the Boy Scouts of America's organizational right to ban homosexuals from being scoutmasters.

On October 19, 2009, Kennedy temporarily blocked Washington state officials from releasing the names of people who signed petitions calling for a referendum ballot measure that would repeal a gay rights domestic partnership law, but joined the subsequent majority decision in Doe v. Reed, which stated the Washington law permitting signature release was constitutional, but remanded the matter to the lower court to determine whether the release of this particular petition's signatures was constitutional.

In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010), the Court held that a public law college's policy requiring that all student organizations allow any student to join was constitutional. The Christian Legal Society wanted an exemption from the policy because the organization barred students based on religion and sexual orientation. Hastings College of Law refused to grant the exemption. The court found that Hastings' policy was reasonable and viewpoint neutral. Kennedy wrote a concurrence joining the majority.

On June 26, 2013, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was held unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor. In the majority opinion on this case, Kennedy wrote, "The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity. By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment."

Two years later, Kennedy authored the majority ruling in the decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, which holds that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry nationwide. The closing paragraph of Kennedy's ruling has been used by many couples in their marriage vows:

Gun issues

On June 26, 2008, Kennedy joined the majority in District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. At issue was whether Washington, D.C.'s ban violated the right to "keep and bear arms" by preventing individuals from having guns in their homes. Kennedy sided with the conservatives on the Court, holding that the Second Amendment recognized an individual's right to keep and bear arms. Two years later, in McDonald v. Chicago, Kennedy joined the majority opinion holding that the Second Amendment's protections for the right to keep and bear arms are incorporated against the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Habeas corpus

On June 12, 2008, Kennedy wrote the 5–4 majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush. The case challenged the legality of Lakhdar Boumediene's detention at the Guantanamo Bay military base as well as the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006. Kennedy was joined by the four more liberal justices in finding that the constitutionally guaranteed right of habeas corpus applies to persons held in Guantanamo Bay and to persons designated as enemy combatants on that territory. They also found that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 failed to provide an adequate substitute for habeas corpus and that the MCA was an unconstitutional suspension of that right.

The court also concluded that the detainees are not required to exhaust review procedures in the court of appeals before seeking habeas relief in the district court. In the ruling, Kennedy called the Combatant Status Review Tribunals "inadequate". He explained, "to hold that the political branches may switch the constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this court, 'say what the law is.'" The decision struck down section seven of the MCA but left intact the Detainee Treatment Act. In a concurring opinion, Justice Souter stressed the fact that the prisoners involved had been imprisoned for as many as six years.

Religious liberty
On issues of religion, Kennedy held to a less separationist reading of the Establishment Clause than did his colleague, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, favoring a "Coercion Test" that he detailed in County of Allegheny v. ACLU. Kennedy authored the majority opinion in Town of Greece v. Galloway, 572 U.S. 565 (2014), concluding, "The town of Greece does not violate the First Amendment by opening its meetings with prayer that comports with our tradition, and does not coerce participation by nonadherents."

Super PACs

Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Citizens United found that the BCRA §203 prohibition of all independent expenditures by corporations and unions violated the First Amendment's protection of free speech.  The majority wrote, "If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."

Justice Kennedy's opinion for the majority also noted that because the First Amendment does not distinguish between media and other corporations, these restrictions would allow Congress to suppress political speech in newspapers, books, television, and blogs. The court overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990), which had held that a state law that prohibited corporations from using treasury money to support or oppose candidates in elections did not violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.  The Court also overruled that portion of McConnell v. FEC (2003) that upheld BCRA's restriction of corporate spending on "electioneering communications".  The Court's ruling effectively freed corporations and unions to spend money both on "electioneering communications" and to directly advocate for the election or defeat of candidates (although not to contribute directly to candidates or political parties).

On October 25, 2011, Richard L. Hasen wrote that in the 2012 election super PACs "will likely replace political parties as a conduit for large, often secret contributions, allowing an end run around the $2,500 individual contribution limit and the bar on corporate and labor contributions to federal candidates". According to Hasen, the rise of super PACs dates to a sentence in Kennedy's opinion in Citizens United: "We now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption." Kennedy also wrote in his opinion that he was not concerned if higher expenditures by people or corporations were viewed as leading to corruption, stating, "...the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy."

Other issues

On the issue of the limits of free speech, Kennedy joined a majority to protect flag burning in the controversial case of Texas v. Johnson (1989). In his concurrence, Kennedy wrote, "It is poignant but fundamental that the flag protects those who hold it in contempt." He took a very broad view of constitutional protection for speech under the First Amendment, invalidating a congressional law prohibiting "virtual" child pornography in Ashcroft v. ACLU (2002).

Kennedy has joined with court majorities in decisions favoring states' rights and invalidating federal and state affirmative action programs. He ruled with the majority on Equal Protection grounds in the controversial 2000 Bush v. Gore case that halted continuing recounts in the 2000 presidential election and ended the legal challenge to the election of President George Bush. Although the decision was published without an author, Kennedy wrote the decision. Behind the scenes, colleagues criticized his professionalism in this case, feeling that he inflated the numbers of his majority opinion by deciding, without consulting the dissenting justices, to implicate some of the dissenters as having joined his opinion in part.

In the 2005 Gonzales v. Raich case, he joined the liberal members of the Court (along with conservative Justice Scalia) in permitting the federal government to prohibit the use of medical marijuana, even in states where it is legal. Several weeks later, in the controversial case of Kelo v. City of New London (2005), he joined the four more liberal justices in supporting the local government's power to take private property for economic development through the use of eminent domain.

In Norfolk & Western Railway Co. v. Ayers (2003), Kennedy wrote a partial dissent in which he argued that railroad workers who had contracted asbestosis from their employment should not be entitled to recovery for the emotional pain and suffering from their increased risk of cancer.

In Baze v. Rees, Kennedy played a deciding role in the outcome of lethal injection. Some correspondents believed he would play a larger role, believing more than two judges would dissent.

A December 2011 article in the Huffington Post noted that Kennedy in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (2009) and Bullcoming v. New Mexico (2011) dissented on an interpretation of the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses, where a lab tech who created a forensic report on a case is required to testify at trial if called. His dissents, joined by Roberts, Breyer, and Alito, claimed that the rule would place a burden on understaffed labs. However, in Williams v. Illinois, Kennedy sided with Scalia's interpretation of the amendment.

Public speaking and teaching
Kennedy called for reform of overcrowded American prisons in a speech before the American Bar Association. He has spent his summers in Salzburg, Austria, where he teaches international and American law at the University of Salzburg for the McGeorge School of Law international program and has attended the large yearly international judges' conference held there.

In 1994, he ran a series of mock trials of Shakespeare's character Hamlet, for his murder of Polonius. Alan Stone was a psychiatric witness for the prosecution, tasked with fighting against an insanity defense. The juries usually deadlocked.

In 2005, Kennedy received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Sir Roger Bannister.

In January 2015, Kennedy recorded a short interview for Historic Mount Vernon about the vital role George Washington had played in the drafting and early interpretation of the Constitution.

Personal life
On June 23, 1963, Kennedy married Mary Jeanne Davis from Sacramento, California. The Kennedys have three children: Justin, Gregory, and Kristin. Mary Kennedy and the three Kennedy children are all graduates of Stanford.

Mary Kennedy was a third grade teacher at the Golden Empire Elementary School in Sacramento.

Justin Kennedy worked for Goldman Sachs, and then for Deutsche Bank from 1997 to 2009; he became its global head of real estate capital markets. During his time at Deutsche Bank he helped Donald Trump secure a $640 million loan for a Chicago real estate project.

Gregory attended Stanford Law School and was a president of the Stanford Federalist Society. He was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in the 1990s, later worked at UBS, and, since October 2016, is the chief operating officer at the investment bank Disruptive Technology Advisers, which works closely with Dropbox, 23andMe, and Peter Thiel's Palantir Technologies.

Kennedy is one of 15 Roman Catholics to have served on the Supreme Court (out of a total of 116 justices).

See also

 List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
 List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 1)
 List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
 List of United States federal judges by longevity of service
 United States Supreme Court cases during the Rehnquist Court
 United States Supreme Court cases during the Roberts Court

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading
 Colucci, Frank J. Justice Kennedy's Jurisprudence: The Full and Necessary Meaning of Liberty (University Press of Kansas, 2009) . online review
 Knowles, Helen J. The Tie Goes to Freedom: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on Liberty (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) .
 Schmidt, Patrick D. and David A. Yalof. "The 'Swing Voter' Revisited: Justice Anthony Kennedy and the First Amendment Right of Free Speech", Political Research Quarterly, June 2004, Vol. 57, Issue 2, pp. 209–217.
 Toobin, Jeffrey. "Swing Shift: How Anthony Kennedy's passion for foreign law could change the Supreme Court", The New Yorker (2005). online

External links

 Issue positions and quotes at OnTheIssues
 Jonah Goldberg, "Justice Kennedy's Mind: Where the Constitution resides", 2005.
 "Kennedy's Benchmarks" by Mark Trapp, American Spectator (July 14, 2004).
 Time magazine cover story: What Will Justice Kennedy Do? also pre-article June 7, 2012
 Transcript of Senate Confirmation Hearing, 1987.
 Supreme Court Associate Justice Nomination Hearings on Anthony McLeod Kennedy in December 1987 United States Government Publishing Office

1936 births
Living people
20th-century American judges
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century American judges
21st-century American lawyers
21st-century Roman Catholics
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American legal scholars
American people of Irish descent
California lawyers
California National Guard personnel
California Republicans
Catholics from California
Harvard Law School alumni
Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Lawyers from Sacramento, California
People from McLean, Virginia
Stanford University alumni
United States Army soldiers
United States court of appeals judges appointed by Gerald Ford
United States federal judges appointed by Ronald Reagan
University of the Pacific (United States) faculty
Catholics from Virginia

Anthony Kennedy


Irena's Vow is a Broadway play recounting the story of Irena Gut, a Polish nurse who, at the risk of her life, saved twelve Jews during World War II in German-occupied Poland.

Production history
The play opened at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre at 219 West 48th Street (between Broadway and 8th Avenue) on 29 March 2009, after having premiered off-Broadway at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in September 2008. The ninety-minute play opened at the Kerr Theatre with the same cast from off-Broadway.

The play was written by Dan Gordon, based on conversations that he had held with Irene Gut-Opdyke (née Irena Gut). Gordon "captures... peculiarly Polish elements: the heroine's irony and sense of humor in the face of catastrophe." He deftly draws the historic backdrop to Irena's story and creates a suspenseful narrative and "enthralling dialog."

The title role is played by Tovah Feldshuh. Appearing in other roles are Sandi Carroll, Tracee Chimo, Steven Hauck, Scott Klaven, Peter Reznikoff, Thomas Ryan, Gene Silvers, John Stanisci and Maja Wampuszyc.

Irena's Vow is directed by Michael Parva. Scenic design is by Kevin Judge; lighting design, David Castaneda; costume design, Astrid Brucker; sound design and music composition, Quentin Chiappetta; and projection design, Alex Koch.

On June 16, 2009 it was announced that Irena's Vow will close on June 28.  At the time of its closure, it will have played 21 previews and 105 regular performances.

Irena's Vow, a film adaptation written by Gordon and directed by Louise Archambault, went into production in 2022 in Lublin and is slated to premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

Story
After Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939, Irena Gut, a Polish Catholic nurse nineteen year old at the outbreak of World War II, was captured by the Soviet Army. After escaping, she was caught in a German roundup to be used as a slave laborer.

Eventually she became the housekeeper to a German army major. After she witnessed the gruesome fate of Jews in German-occupied Poland, Gut resolved at the risk of her life to conceal a dozen Jews threatened by the German Holocaust extermination program. The penalty that the Germans imposed on any Pole found to be harboring or otherwise aiding Jews was death.

One day Gut's employer discovered that she was concealing Jews in his house. Gut begged him to spare them; he agreed to, and never betrayed them or her. Gut became the German officer's mistress. Before the Red Army arrived, she fled with the people that she was protecting into the forest. After the war, suspected falsely by some of having collaborated with the Germans, she emigrated to the United States.

See also
Irena Gut
List of individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust
Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
2009 in theatre

Notes

References
"Przysięga Ireny" ("Irena's Vow"), Gwiazda Polarna (Pole Star), vol. 100, no. 7 (March 28, 2009), p. 14.

External links
Internet Broadway Database listing
Andrew Gans, "Feldshuh to Return to Broadway in March in Irena's Vow", playbill.com, 22 December 2008.
Willborn Hampton, "Hiding Innocents and Keeping Evil at Bay", New York Times, 26 September 2008.

Broadway plays
2009 plays
Plays based on actual events
Plays about World War II
Jews and Judaism in fiction
Plays set in Poland

Irena's Vow