Grassley expects another Supreme Court vacancy before 2020

Published February 14, 2017 5:01am ET



As Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, prepares for Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court, he said he’s expecting to repeat the process before 2020.

Asked whose seat he expected to open before the next presidential election, Grassley responded, “Oh, I wouldn’t answer that. If I answered for some it’d be like hoping they die.” At the end of Trump’s four-year term, three justices will be older than the life expectancy of U.S. residents. Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy would be older than 78, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be 87.

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