The Supreme Court on Friday shot down new rumors that Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, might be getting ready to retire in 2017, which would mean Trump has two seats to fill on the high court.
Rumors that Kennedy, the swing vote in many contentious cases, might step down appear to be based on three points, as tracked down by Above The Law’s David Lat. One is that Kennedy scheduled his law clerk reunion for 2017, his 29th year on the Court. Clerk reunions are more often scheduled every five years, and some see this as a sign that Kennedy might be ready to retire.
Secondly, Kennedy did not teach abroad in Salzburg, Austria, last summer, as he often does. And lastly, Kennedy appeared to slow his clerk hiring process for the October 2017 term.
Ed Whelan, the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s president and a former clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, also reportedly raised the prospect of a vacancy at an Appellate Judges Education Institute summit. The AJEI denied the Washington Examiner access to its summit.
But Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg seemed to shoot down these rumors in a reply to Above the Law.
“Justice Kennedy is in the process of hiring clerks for 2017,” Arberg said to Above The Law. “The Justice didn’t go to Salzburg this past summer because it conflicted with some plans with his family, but he is scheduled to return to teach there in 2017. The reunion is scheduled for the end of this Term because the Justice’s law clerks wanted to hold it during the Justice’s 80th year to mark his birthday.”
Even if Kennedy remains, Trump will already be entering the White House with an eight-justice Supreme Court, and appointing a replacement for Scalia will be one of his top priorities. Trump will be able to mostly preserve the status quo on the court if he picks a conservative nominee who would be confirmed by the Senate.
