OA186: Anthony Kennedy & the Future of the Supreme Court
Today's Rapid Response Friday comes after a busy week at the Supreme Court, capped off by the (somewhat) surprising announcement that Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy intends to retire as of July 31, 2018. We break down everything about this news, including:
- What the Trump administration is likely to do next
- Who President Trump might nominate to fill Kennedy's spot
- How the Democrats should respond
- What the next Supreme Court might look like
- How all of this plays in with the 2018 midterms and 2020 Presidential election
- And much, much more!
- We broke down the "nuclear option" in Episode 59.\xa0 Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate would not recess for the summer on June 5.
- Here are the (generally reliable)\xa0Cook Political Report ratings of the 2018 Senate races.
- This is the\xa0Mother Jones\xa0article on Anthony Kennedy's 2017-2018 votes.
- This is the list of Trump's 25 potential Supreme Court nominees.
- These are the resources discussed in the future segment, including the\xa0When Every Vote Counts law review article, the\xa0Slate article on 5-4 splits, and the SCOTUSBlog data regarding the 2017-2018 term.
- Finally, if you're feeling nostalgic, you might want to reread\xa0Obergefell v. Hodges while it's still good law.\xa0 An d if you're feeling super optimistic, you can even check out the "Above the Law" blog post arguing that it will survive Kennedy's departure (it won't).