With many expecting a bombshell announcement today from either Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy or Clarence Thomas, moments ago the news hit that indeed Justice Anthony Kennedy - a conservative who provided critical votes for immigration, same sex-marriage and abortion access, will retire from the SCOTUS, and that he will leave active status on July 31.
His retirement will allow president Trump to nominate a successor who could create the most conservative court in generations.
(The oldest Justice, 85-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has made it clear she won’t retire any time soon, particularly while Donald Trump is president.)
Kennedy, an 81-year-old Ronald Reagan appointee, has been the court’s pivotal vote for the last decade, and as Bloomberg reports, his centrist position meant he wrote some of the court’s most important opinions.
He disappointed conservatives in 1992, when he co-wrote an opinion reaffirming the constitutional right to abortion. Although he later backed some restrictions -- voting to uphold a federal ban on some late-term abortions -- he cast the decisive vote to strike down Texas regulations on clinics and doctors in 2016.
Kennedy became a champion of gay rights and wrote the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, using the type of sweeping language that characterized his opinions.
“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Kennedy wrote. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family.”
Kennedy also wrote the 2010 Citizens United ruling, which opened the way for a torrent of new campaign spending. He equated campaign-finance laws with censorship, writing that "the First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves."
He was the quintessential swing vote on racial issues. He joined the conservative wing to strike down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 but voted with the court’s liberals in 2016 to back university affirmative action programs.
Kennedy voted to overturn then-President Barack Obama’s health-care law. He was one of five justices in the majority of the 2000 Bush v. Gore ruling, which sealed George W. Bush’s election as president over Democrat Al Gore.
Potential repolacements include Washington-based federal appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh, a former Kennedy law clerk with close ties to the retiring justice. Trump could also consider three federal judges he interviewed before selectingNeil Gorsuch to fill an earlier vacancy: William Pryor of Alabama, Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania and Amul Thapar of Kentucky. Other possibilities include federal appellate judges Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, who was considered for the Gorsuch seat but didn’t get an interview, and Amy Coney Barrett of South Bend, Indiana.
As Bloomberg notes, all are on a list of 25 prospective justices the White House has developed with input from the conservative Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation.
Republicans hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate, so they could approve Trump’s nominee without any Democratic support. In confirming Gorsuch, Republicans eliminated the 60-vote requirement...