WOW. Just wow.
Trump already got to appoint one Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, effectively changing the landscape of the Supreme Court for decades and keeping a 5-4 vote in the conservative camp.
Now it looks like he may get to appoint another, not too far in the future.
You might expect it would be sleepy Ginsburg, but you’d be wrong. Well, maybe her too! But the report just now from CNN is that Justice Kennedy will retiring soon! WOW.
Here’s the report from CNN:
Friends and associates believe Kennedy is seriously considering retirement. In general, the burdens of age and demands at the court weigh in one direction. His deep interest — and leading role — in America’s constitutional democracy weigh in the other.
The question appears not to be whether Kennedy will retire soon, but when — at the end of this June, or next?
Replacing staunch conservative Justice Antonin Scalia with the likeminded 49-year-old Gorsuch may not change the direction of the court. The political and legal stakes, however, would be dramatically higher if Trump has the opportunity to fill Kennedy’s seat. Kennedy, a centrist conservative, has cast a key vote for gay marriage, abortion rights, affirmative action, and fair housing law.
Kennedy controls the outcome of cases like no other justice in more than a decade. With four conservatives to his right, four liberals to his left, he often holds the decisive vote on business and regulatory matters as well.
In response to a request from CNN, Kennedy, a 1988 appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, declined to comment on his retirement plans. He also declined to respond to questions related to any private meeting with anyone from the Trump administration.
Trump told the Washington Times this weekend he wasn’t aware of any specific plans for Kennedy to retire.
“I don’t know. I have a lot of respect for Justice Kennedy, but I just don’t know,” Trump said. “I don’t like talking about it. I’ve heard the same rumors that a lot of people have heard. And I have a lot of respect for that gentleman, a lot.”
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