Justice Kennedy Announces Retirement

Let the gnawing begin.

I'm not going to cry over the retirement of the author of Citizens United v FEC and the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore. He has a very mixed legacy. And there's no way in hell anyone should be seated before a new Congress is sworn. That was (supposedly) McConnell's rule when Scalia passed away in FEBRUARY, 2016. It is now late JUNE. I guess we'll have to wait until after the midterms.

Here's McConnell after Scalia:

Vote early, and vote often .. so they say.

A short list of possibles from Vox:

Brett Kavanaugh
Amy Coney Barrett
Thomas Hardiman
Amul Thapar
Raymond Kethledge
Joan Larsen
Britt Grant
Mike Lee
William Pryor

Don't know much about most of these folks, personally .. I know a little about a couple of 'em  ....  but if I had to predict just one from that list as  "Trump's most likely to ..." based upon Vox description of each it would have to be ...  Joan Larsen.

Of course ya never know with Trump ... he could as well nominate Kanye West for all  I know.  

.....  The following nine people are listed on PredictIt as having the best odds of being tapped by Trump to replace the departing Kennedy. They are listed according to their ranking as of Wednesday at 9 pm Eastern.  ....

https://www.vox.com/explainers/2018/6/28/17512106/anthony-kennedy-retirement-supreme-court-trump

Floridatexan wrote: I guess we'll have to wait until after the midterms.

No... it'll be pushed through before the election. Harry Reid removed the filibuster in a very short sighted political ploy.

You were supportive of that... right?

Here's a fascinating twist: Justice Kennedy's son Justin loaned Drumpf over $1 billion when he was employed by Deutsche Bank.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/28/1776541/-Loans-of-over-1-Billion-to-Trump-by-SCOTUS-justice-Kennedy-s-son-but-nothing-to-see-here?detail=emaildkre

And it appears that Justin Kennedy also bailed out Jared Kushner for his 666 Fifth Ave. property.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/29/1776576/-Did-Justice-Kennedy-s-Son-Bail-Out-Jared-Kushner-on-The-666-Building-It-Appears-So

Also, don't forget that Wilbur Ross also was with Deutsche Bank.

And that Gorsuch was Kennedy's clerk.

**********

Floridatexan wrote:
Here's a fascinating twist:  Justice Kennedy's son Justin loaned Drumpf over $1 billion when he was employed by Deutsche Bank.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/28/1776541/-Loans-of-over-1-Billion-to-Trump-by-SCOTUS-justice-Kennedy-s-son-but-nothing-to-see-here?detail=emaildkre

And it appears that Justin Kennedy also bailed out Jared Kushner for his 666 Fifth Ave. property.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/29/1776576/-Did-Justice-Kennedy-s-Son-Bail-Out-Jared-Kushner-on-The-666-Building-It-Appears-So

Also, don't forget that Wilbur Ross also was with Deutsche Bank.

And that Gorsuch was Kennedy's clerk.

**********

and this...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/trump-anthony-kennedy-retirement.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region%C2%AEion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news



or this:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trumps-odd-supreme-court-strategy-calculation-not-chaos.html

Floridatexan wrote:
Here's a fascinating twist:  Justice Kennedy's son Justin loaned Drumpf over $1 billion when he was employed by Deutsche Bank.  .....

Eh, I don't know.  It is quite the coincidence, I'll grant you that.  But coincidences happen all the time.  J

Just to consider some other factors:

*  Kennedy is like 80+ years old and has been on the court for over 40 years.  He may be just tired.  Maybe he does actually want to spend more time with his family at his age.  I imagine being a Supreme Court Justice is not any kind of a part-time hobby job.  Rather, I imagine it can involve some very long hours.

*  Doubtless he would like to see himself replaced by another conservative Justice ... and who knows what the composition of the Congress will be after Nov?  What roadblocks could be put up should Dems gain control of the Senate?  (esp in light of the blocking of the Garland fiasco, Dems will have their revenge if/when they can.  you can count on it).


*  The financial deal in question happened .. when?  2010 or so? .. .six years before the election and four or five years before Trump announced his definite intention to run for the Presidency.

*  Kennedy's son was CEO of  LNR Property  "a firm specializing in restructuring troubled debt"   That doesn't mean he owned the company or it was his personal money.  This LNR Property is a big outfit from what I quickly looked up about them,  and I doubt the CEO alone can make such investment/bailout decisions unilaterally.  (although he could have some influence, of course.)  So situations like the 666 building would not necessarily have been out of the normal course of business for a company like that.   They invest in and restructure troubled real estate debt (projects) which is exactly what 666 was.

I could probably come up with a few other things to consider .. that's just off the top of my head.  Just some food for thought, before we get all carried away with conspiracy theories.