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Anthony Kennedy Retiring
All hail Trump and McConnell! Yes, it’s really happening! Whatever else President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have done for us or to us, they will soon give us a conservative Supreme Court majority that could last for a generation. Kennedy is retiring, and thanks to Trump and McConnell, his replacement will be a Constitutional conservative.
I’ve been saying for a while now, give America 3% growth, and we will win in 2018 and confirm a conservative SCOTUS majority. The 3% growth is here, and so is the SCOTUS majority. I’m not sure we could ask for much more from a Republican president.
Published in GeneralFrom CNN:
Washington (CNN) Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who provided key votes for same sex-marriage, abortion access and affirmative action, will retire from the Supreme Court.
The retirement is effective July 31, Kennedy said in a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Kennedy’s decision to step down could transform the Supreme Court for generations. Trump will have his second opportunity to nominate a justice and will likely replace Kennedy with a young, conservative jurist. That would create a bloc of five staunch conservative justices who could move the court further to the right and cement a conservative majority for the foreseeable future.
The nomination battle will likely ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill as it comes just a year after Republicans changed the rules of the Senate in order to push through the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first nominee.A senior White House official said Trump will push for the swift confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice “before the midterm elections.”
Shouldn’t they? This is, I believe known as the Biden standard as conveniently laid out by Republicans in the last election. The hypocrisy of this will be extra juicy I am sure when it comes to it.
I say the only legitimate way to select a judge is to have them fight a bear.
Harry Reid put the kibosh on that.
Thanks, Harry!
She will die in office as long as Trump is in office.
Plus women live longer than men!
Second question first: The Dems can’t do anything legal, but watch out for violence.
I’m conflicted. Half of me wants to see if Trump can negotiate some better trade deals with these new tariffs. The other half wants to see Republican Senators show some institutional cohones. I’m a sucker for the founders’ notion of checks and balances.
McConnell is really getting into the mood:
If a mandated premium is a tax, and a person falls into a bracket where they don’t get help from the Exchanges in terms of paying for the mandated premiums, then every payment to the Insurer should be tax deductible, as it is not constitutional to tax the amount of income that is used to pay a tax!
Janice Rogers Brown of the DC Circuit would be great, except she is 69 years old.
How about the first Asian on the Court, John Yoo?
Jeff Flake would not hold up a Supreme Court nominee. Still, I am happy that he is showing backbone and demanding votes on issues like tariffs.
Another question: How many of the red state Democrat senators vote for Kennedy’s replacement? It’s a tough decision: party or self?
This is the moment of truth: am I right that Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski (and possibly others) will never vote to confirm the Justice who would (theoretically) reverse Roe v. Wade? Will any Red State Democrats cross that line, incurring the wrath of their party? If the proposed Fall vote fails, what are the chances for next year after the election?
Whichever side loses, expect their political advocates to call for a (metaphorical?) bloody purge. Expect the base to fully support it.
Interesting times. Hopefully, next year will be one of hope and jubilation. (Real hope, not the ‘relief at the stay of execution’ I’ve been experiencing since the Presidential election).
Conservative Justices are far far more important than international trade policy; in the short term, they are even more important that reaffirming congressional prerogatives. This is not the issue to hold hostage over it.
“The Resistance” picked the wrong week to go after McConnell and his wife.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/us/politics/elaine-chao-protesters-mitch-mcconnell.html
I’m sure it’ll all work out for the best.
Really? So no more Mr. Smith goes to Washington? Shame…it always seemed a rather romantic thing to do. At least in theory.
Madness! No man who so loves the McRib can be entrusted with sitting on the highest court in the land.
That’s a good question. Primaries are over right? The seemingly smart play is to not resist, and win your race to deny Republicans the Senate and stop future Trump laws and nominees. But the heart of their base will not like it and you still need them to vote for you to win in the end. I don’t know how you make that argument to them. I guess you shut up for now and let safe Democrats destroy whoever the nominee is and then hope they do a good enough job to give you some plausible deniability. Republicans can still mess up by nominating poorly.
Depends on how long they can stall.
Given what happened to his wife, I think Cocaine Mitch is not in a mood to play nice right now.
another hispanic, Cruz? In drag?
McConnells poop eating grin is my new favorite thing.
They picked the wrong week to mess with his wife!
Be still my heart. Yes, Ted Cruz!
I believe @caroljay made the comment that you attributed to me, but I agree with what she said. BTW, I wish the Dems all the luck in the world with their stall tactics, as long as they don’t start gunning down our senators. Peace and love on Capitol Hill! Jimmie Madison is smiling down on us. Let’s make him proud.
I have no idea how that quote got there, but I meant to quote this:
How would they know? If a nominee says “I oppose Roe and would vote to overturn it” during his hearings, then yes, they might vote against him.
Presumably anyone who actually wants the job will follow precedent, refuse to comment on specific cases that might come before the court, and speak in very general terms about judicial philosophy, fidelity to the Constitution, and so forth. Would that give Collins or Murkowski enough ammo to justify voting no?
A judge is not supposed to answer such a question anyway, as it would show prejudice and be considered grounds for recusal.
He can just say that he identifies as a woman, right? Those are the new rules.
I don’t think SCOTUS held that mandated premiums are taxes; the decision held that the penalty for not buying a government-approved insurance plan is a tax. So, either you pay premiums or you pay the tax.
The fact that the penalty/tax is collected by the IRS does help the case that it’s really a tax.
Just sayin’