Justice Anthony Kennedy, a crucial swing vote on the Supreme Court, announced Wednesday he's retiring at the end of July, giving President Donald Trump another chance to fundamentally reshape the highest court in the land.
His departure could have massive effects on U.S. policy, particularly on abortion rights and gay rights nationwide. His announcement immediately raised questions about how long the court would stand by its earlier abortion rulings, including Roe v. Wade.
In a statement, the Supreme Court said the 81-year-old Kennedy will step down effective July 31. The judge called it "the greatest honor and privilege to serve our nation in the federal judiciary for 43 years, 30 of those years in the Supreme Court." Kennedy wants to spend more time with his family, even though they were content with him staying on the court.
He also sent a letter to Trump on Wednesday notifying the president of his decision. The court adjourned for the summer earlier in the day.
"For a member of the legal profession, it is the highest of honors to serve on this Court," he wrote. "Please permit me by this letter to express my profound gratitude for having had the privilege to seek in each case how best to know, interpret and defend the Constitution and the laws that must always conform to its mandates and promises."
tiny10boy on June 27th, 2018 at 20:50 UTC »
RBG is going to start sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber.
pimanac on June 27th, 2018 at 18:47 UTC »
Assuming this is still up to date....here the Presidents list of potential appointees
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-supreme-court-list/
ehImCanadian on June 27th, 2018 at 18:38 UTC »
The reason people keep calling him a swing vote is because he's the most Liberal of the Conservative justices which results in his voting habits changing. This dosen't mean he's a 50/50 though, this term for example their have been 14 5 to 4 decisions by the Supreme Court and he sided with the Conservatives in all 14.
Also this is petty, but I said in /r/politics Mitch Mcconnell was cancelling the August senate break because of Anthony Kennedy retirment and I got called a Trump supporter(which Im not)
My Reasons
My evidence was he's known for hiring clerks early this time he hired for 2018/2019 session in March but he's used to hiring two years in advance.
Retired Justices get 1 clerk each year to handle their work.
He first hired 1 clerk then waited 4 months to hire anther 3, this reflects he's going to take one into retirment work and the other three will be given to senior justices on the court for the year. This insures a full slot of clerks are hired and no one is passed over
He's a Republican and even though he's clearly not a Trump Republican rumours are Neil Gorsuch was one of his favorite clerks so it gave him comfort to retire
Biggest reason
Like come on? I'm a Auditor living in Canada but the media is acting extremly shocked and surprised it happened when he's been giving out hints for over a year.Prediction Time
I guessed right on Gorsuch:
1) Brett Kavanaugh: DC Circuit
Yale Undergraduate and Yale Law
Former Kennedy clerk
Statistically tied for being the top feeder judge to the supreme court, this refers to clerks being selected by his recommendation.
2) Paul Clement
Georgetown Undergraduate, Cambridge(Master in Economics), Harvard LawMy guess is Brett Kavanagh he's as Conservative as Gorsuch and only 53.
EDIT:
The media will begin to call John Roberts the new swing justice, there's this meme amongst the media that he's a secret Liberal this simply isn't true. He voted to not call Obamacare unconstitutional because of a conservative legal philosophy which he supports. The Obamacare case had 15 arguments that needed to be met to deem it unconstitutional, John Roberts agreed with 14 out of the 15.
Jeffrey Toobin even said he didn't agree with the coverage because it made it seem like Roberts shifted left he just didn't agree with the argument being presented.Edit: 2
Thanks for the gold!
Edit: 3
Thanks for the second piece of gold!