Kenneth Francis Ripple

Kenneth Francis Ripple (born May 19, 1943) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Education and career

Ripple was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Fordham University in 1965. He received a Juris Doctor from University of Virginia School of Law in 1968. He received a Master of Laws from George Washington University Law School in 1972. He was in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1972. He was in the United States Naval Reserve Judge Advocate General's Corps since 1972. He was an attorney for IBM's Office of the General Counsel in 1968. He was a legal officer of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 to 1973. He was a special assistant to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1973 to 1977. He was in private practice of law in Washington, D.C. from 1977 to 1985. He has been a Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame since 1977. He was a reporter of the Advisory Committee on Federal Appellate Rules from 1978 to 1985.

Federal judicial service

Ripple was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on April 1, 1985, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to a new seat created by 98 Stat. 333. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 3, 1985, and received commission on May 10, 1985. He assumed senior status on September 1, 2008. He previously taught Conflict of Laws, Federal Courts, and a Judicial Process Seminar.

Notable cases

On November 21, 2016, Judge Ripple, joined by District Judge Barbara Brandriff Crabb found that the high number of wasted votes created by the 2011 Wisconsin State Assembly redistricting was unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering, over dissent by District Judge William C. Griesbach.

In October 2018, Ripple dissented when the majority, in an opinion by Chief Judge Diane Wood, found that Tony Evers, then Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, did not violate the Constitution's Free Exercise Clause nor its Establishment Clause when he denied bussing to an independent catholic school because there was a nearby archdiocesan school.