Kennedy, 81, Pulling The Pin; Trump Gets Another SCOTUS Appointment

h/t Kenny

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

(PRAVDA/NBC) Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy 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. 

In a statement, the Supreme Court said the 81-year-old Kennedy will step down effective July 31. 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.

 

The president's first nominee to the court, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, has already had an enormous effect on U.S. policy. The president said his next choice would come from a previously released list of 25 candidates. 

Replacing Kennedy with a conservative could have a massive long-term effect on the highest U.S. court. His decision to leave will have huge implications for the midterm elections, as Democrats and Republicans battle for control of the Senate. The chamber confirms Supreme Court justices.

Senate Republicans will try to fill Kennedy's seat before November. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that "we will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor this fall."

Having already sabotaged the Constitution and the republic numerous times in his vacillating career (if you want to see how much the Left regarded him as one of "their guys", you have only to peruse the Leftard meltdown over his retirement announcement), Kennedy's giving President Trump the benefit of the doubt on replacing him, so he doesn't have to worry about dying from an unfortunate boating accident or wayward pillow while sleeping, in his declining years of dottitude.

McConjob and the Senate better not screw this one up. And the confirmation should be done before the Court sits again, the first Monday in October, or the GOP and GOPe will pay the price in the mid-terms.

Now we just need ancient crone Bader-Ginsburg to bail out as well. At 85, every day she wakes up is a roll of the actuarial dice (ducking pancreatic cancer some years back may have been a roulette wheel 00 stroke of good fortune), and she isn't likely to make it to 2021, let alone 2025.

Breyer is 79, making him ripe for stepping down one way or another as well, before the end of the Trump administration.

That's two hardcore liberals on the bubble, if you're keeping score at home. Thomas, at 70, is next-eldest, and barring bad fortune should look forward to another decade on the court.

A 7-2 conservative Court undoes the Left relentlessly for another decade, minimum, and possibly two or three.

This is something to cheer about.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is the consolidated list of potential SCOTUS appointees from the two lists released by then-candidate Trump prior to the election:

United States Courts of Appeals

• Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
  • Brett Kavanaugh (born 1965)
• Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
  • Thomas Hardiman (born 1965)
• Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
  • Don Willett (born 1966)(appointed by Trump)
• Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
  • Raymond Kethledge (born 1966)
  • Joan Larsen (born 1968)(appointed by Trump)
  • Amul Thapar (born 1969) (elevated by Trump)
• Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
  • Amy Coney Barrett (born 1972) (appointed by Trump)
  • Diane Sykes (born 1957)
• Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
  • Steven Colloton (born 1963)
  • Raymond Gruender (born 1963)
  • David Stras (born 1974) (appointed by Trump)
• Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
• Allison Eid (born 1965) (appointed by Trump)
• Timothy Tymkovich (born 1956)
• Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
  • Kevin Newsom (born 1972) (appointed by Trump)
  • Bill Pryor (born 1962)
• Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
  • Meg Ryan (born 1964)

United States District Courts

• Federico A. Moreno (born 1952) – District Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

State Supreme Courts

• Keith Blackwell (born 1975) – Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Georgia
• Charles Canady (born 1954) – Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Florida
• Britt Grant (born 1978) – Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Georgia (nominated to the Eleventh Circuit)
• Thomas Rex Lee (born 1964) – Associate Justice, Utah Supreme Court (possible candidate for a Circuit Court vacancy)
• Edward Mansfield (born 1957) – Associate Justice, Iowa Supreme Court
• Patrick Wyrick (born 1981) – Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Oklahoma (nominated to the Western District of Oklahoma)
• Robert Young Jr. (born 1951) – Former Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court

United States Senators

• Mike Lee (born 1971) – Senator from Utah

Nota bene: They have all mostly been appointed to federal judgeships by President Trump before now, and passed the vetting process already, making opposition problematic and knee-jerk, and almost every one of them is under the age of 60 years, giving any one of them a probably 20-25 year term on SCOTUS if appointed.

Given the Senate's condition, Sen. Lee would be rather a longshot, given that he's one of the five most conservative-libertarian votes in that body of corpulent feline establishment pork-barrellers. If one of the two SCOTUS liberals, above, die or step down towards the waning years of Trump's administration, he might be someone to send through as a hearty F.U. to the Left. And he's only 47, so there's still time to put him on the Court another day.