WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his plans today to retire from the bench.
In a brief, three sentence letter to President Trump, 81-year-old Kennedy said that he plans on formally ceding his spot as a supreme court justice at the end of next month.
In the letter, Kennedy 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.”
Kennedy’s resignation opens up the path for a second conservative, Trump-appointed justice after Neal Gorsuch’s confirmation last year. The nominee, if passed through the general assembly, would create a 5 justice conservative voting bloc in the nation’s highest court. That would mean a conservative majority for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to CNN, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed that the Senate is intending on approving a new justice this coming fall, before the midterm elections in November. McConnell and the Republican senate majority blocked the Obama-appointee Merrick Garland for months until the November 2016 election, after former Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, was often the moderate swing vote on many of the court’s cases. During much of his tenure, the court had an even match of four conservative justices against four liberal justices, with Kennedy being the tie-breaker between the two opposing groups.
Kennedy was known for leaning left on many social issues, including the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage. Kennedy’s votes on issues such as campaign finance and gun control tended to side with the conservatives of the court, however. He also voted in favor of George W. Bush during the 2000 Bush v. Gore case.
In a meeting with press in the oval office today, Trump said he intends to choose Kennedy’s replacement off a list of candidates he considered for filling Scalia’s seat last year.
In a written statement, Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly said, “I wish Justice Kennedy and his family well in his retirement. Part of my job as a United States Senator is to carefully consider the president’s judicial nominees, including for the Supreme Court, and I will thoroughly review the record and qualifications of any nominee presented to the Senate.”
Donnelly was one of only three democrats to vote to confirm Neal Gorsuch last year.
