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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy Sunday urged Stanford graduates to make the case for freedom "to a doubting world."

Noting modern communications technology gives graduates unprecedented opportunity to define their lives and work, Kennedy urged graduates to use that power to promote the rule of law. That is crucial in a world where more than half the people lack "either the will or the power to embrace law and freedom as we know it," he said.

"When you confront the reality of half a world without law and freedom, you must know what is at stake," Kennedy, a 1958 Stanford graduate, told some 25,000 graduates and their families assembled in Stanford Stadium.

University President John Hennessey conferred nearly 4,700 Stanford degrees—1,735 bachelors degrees; 2039 masters degrees and 925 doctoral degrees—in the university's 118th Commencement.

In the traditional "wacky walk" as they entered the stadium, graduates dressed as flying pigs, robots, billiard balls, jellyfish, the "freshman 15 pounds" and more.

Several lofted a sign that read: "Four years of tuition: $160,000." Others carried banners thanking mom and dad.

One large group added 1960s peace attire to their caps and gowns and, in a '60s-style demonstration, pleaded to stay on at Stanford:

"Hell no, we won't go! Peace, Love and Stanford! Don't burst the bubble! Yes we can -- just not yet." they chanted.

Others sported road signs indicating "Stop," and "Wrong Way."

Discussing the overwhelming number of applicants to China's first American-style law school, which opened last fall, Kennedy noted some finalists selected for interviews said they had been inspired to go to law school by a movie -- not "12 Angry Men" or "Witness for the Prosecution" but "Legally Blonde."

Kennedy said he had to go out and rent the movie to understand.

"A young woman from California who goes to law school takes a real risk. She must enter a new, unfamiliar, unfriendly, threatening, small universe, one formerly closed to her.

"These Chinese students were taking a risk like that."

Lack of the rule of law promotes corruption and hinders development in vast swaths of the world, he said.

"The legal infrastructure in over half the world cannot support basic improvements that engineers and builders otherwise could construct in short order," he said. "But you cannot build, say, a modern water system if there is no honest legal system to maintain it.

"New water systems cannot be built and maintained where corruption holds sway. This is not just because of the lack of money; it is because of the lack of law and property rights.

"You are among a new generation of university graduates who see an inter-connectiveness in our world and its universe that far surpasses what previous generations could understand.

"All this is evident in the new communications technology -- 'Legally Blonde' in a law school half a world away. As a result, you have a new potential to design and to create and to define your own life and work that is far greater than your predecessors had.

"Please remember that you must understand our own heritage of freedom.

"It is not just the president who must preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. All of us must do so," Kennedy said.

Kennedy, who has compared his Sacramento boyhood to the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," practiced law in San Francisco and Sacramento before being appointed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988 by Ronald Reagan and has been a swing vote on the court in recent years.

Of the 4,699 Stanford degrees conferred Sunday, 1,028 were to students from outside the United States--94 undergraduate and 934 graduate, Hennessey said.

Countries with the largest number of undergraduates, besides the United States, were India, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, Mexico and Japan. Among the graduate students, the most represented countries outside the United States were the People's Republic of China, India, South Korea, Japan, France, Taiwan, Singapore, Turkey and Mexico, he said.

Hennessey invoked the memory of writer, environmentalist and Stanford professor Wallace Stegner, who established Stanford's 60-year-old Creative Writing Program. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Stegner's birth.

Quoting Stegner's speech at Stanford's centennial in 1991, Hennessey recounted the writer's high praise for Stanford's success as a university.

However, Stegner added: "There are still enough troubles to get our attention. ...

"But we have been shown how to handle such things. If there are catastrophes, we will have to rebuild from them. If there have been mistakes, there must be corrections. The one thing that is not permitted is despair," Stegner said.

Hennessey said: "That is the legacy you inherit as you prepare to leave the university: It is a legacy shaped by people like Wallace Stegner, whose life as a writer, teacher and environmentalist exemplified the Stanford spirit."