[1][2] After law school, she clerked for Judge Abner Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then for Justice Harry Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court, from 1981 to 1982.
[3] Following her clerkships, she practiced law in Washington, D.C. as an associate of Ennis, Friedman, Bersoff & Ewing.
In 2006, she joined the faculty of Penn State, having previously taught at the University of Illinois College of Law.
[7] In October 2018, she signed a letter opposing the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In early 2023, Kinports was invited to contribute as an author to the McCormick treatise on Evidence, hailed as a standard text among law students and scholars.