Will Kennedy retire? Gorsuch pick may have been intended to reassure him about a successor
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
If Judge Neil Gorsuch is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, he will be working alongside a justice for whom he once clerked: Anthony M. Kennedy. That will be a first for the U.S. Supreme Court.
The link to Kennedy may have been intended to serve as notice to the swing voter justice that he can retire without fears about the nominee who would replace him, report the Washington Post and the New York Times.
“The idea,” the New York Times reports, “is to show Justice Kennedy, 80, that should he step down at some point, Mr. Trump would select as his replacement a nominee similar to Judge Gorsuch, and not one so inflammatory or outside the mainstream as to be unacceptable to Justice Kennedy.”
Kennedy is a Republican appointee, but he has been a liberal vote on issues such as gay rights, abortion and criminal justice protections for minors and intellectually disabled people. Some believe he is considering retirement.
“I would put it at 50-50 that he leaves at the end of the term,” said one of Kennedy’s former clerks, who spoke with the Washington Post.
