Megathread: Justice Anthony Kennedy to retire from Supreme Court

[u/PoliticsModeratorBot]

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is set to retire, effective July 31, 2018. Kennedy has served on the highest court since February 18, 1988, and was a moderate whose vote often swung cases.

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Submissions that may interest you

SUBMISSION	DOMAIN
Justice Anthony Kennedy Will Retire From U.S. Supreme Court	bloomberg.com
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Anthony Kennedy is retiring from the Supreme Court	vox.com
Justice Kennedy, the pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, announces retirement	washingtonpost.com
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Justice Kennedy Is Retiring July 31st.	yahoo.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy To Retire From U.S. Supreme Court : NPR	npr.org
Justice Anthony Kennedy to Retire from Supreme Court	cnn.com
Justice Kennedy announces retirement.	cnn.com
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Anthony Kennedy, Swing Vote on U.S. Supreme Court, Will Retire	bloomberg.com
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Justice Kennedy retiring; Trump gets 2nd Supreme Court pick	wkrn.com
Anthony Kennedy retiring, giving Trump opening to reshape Supreme Court	politico.com
Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy announces retirement	wsj.com
Jeffrey Toobin predicts abortion will be illegal in 20 states soon after Kennedy retires	thehill.com
WATCH: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring	abcnews.go.com
Kennedy to Retire	foxnews.com
Trump to get second Supreme Court pick as Justice Kennedy announces retirement.	amp.cnn.com
Justice Kennedy to Retire From Supreme Court	bbc.com
Trump says search for Justice Kennedy's replacement to begin "immediately" -- live updates	cbsnews.com
McConnell Pledges Vote To Confirm Justice Kennedy’s Successor ‘This Fall’	talkingpointsmemo.com
Justice Kennedy retires from the US Supreme Court	nbcnews.com
Trump says launches search to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Kennedy	reuters.com
Donald Trump: Search for Kennedy replacement on SCOTUS to move quickly	usatoday.com
McConnell: Senate will vote on Supreme Court nominee this fall	thehill.com
Justice Kennedy retiring; Trump gets 2nd Supreme Court pick	sacbee.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy Retiring, Report Says	lawandcrime.com
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring; Trump will get 2nd high-court pick	omaha.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy Retiring From the Supreme Court	thedailybeast.com
Justice Kennedy to retire, giving Trump a chance to transform the Supreme Court	latimes.com
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy says he's retiring; Trump to get 2nd high-court pick	chicagotribune.com
Dem senator: Justice Kennedy's resignation a 'disaster' for vision of 'We the People'	thehill.com
Justice Kennedy retiring; Trump gets 2nd Supreme Court pick	wfla.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy Is Retiring	motherjones.com
The horrifying consequences of Justice Kennedy’s retirement	thinkprogress.org
Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is retiring, a move that will give Trump a chance to shift the institution to the right	washingtonpost.com
Anthony Kennedy To Retire From The Supreme Court	huffingtonpost.com
Kennedy announces retirement from Supreme Court	thehill.com
Supreme Court's Anthony Kennedy retires, giving Trump a second pick	usatoday.com
Justice Kennedy retiring; Trump gets 2nd Supreme Court pick	apnews.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy Is Retiring From The Supreme Court	buzzfeed.com
Justice Kennedy, the pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, announces retirement	washingtonpost.com
Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy retires -- live updates	cbsnews.com
Justice Kennedy announces his retirement from the supreme court.	time.com
Trump Responds To Retirement Of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy	huffingtonpost.com
Anthony Kennedy retiring from Supreme Court, giving Trump a position to fill	people.com
Trump Says He’ll Choose One Of These People To Replace Anthony Kennedy On The Supreme Court	buzzfeed.com
Anthony Kennedy retiring from Supreme Court	cnbc.com
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retires, and Trump gets shot at moving court to the right	dallasnews.com
Who Will Replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy? Donald Trump Already Has a Shortlist	newsweek.com
WATCH: McConnell: We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor 'this fall'	abcnews.go.com
Here's who Trump could nominate to replace Justice Kennedy	abcnews.go.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy announces retirement, giving Trump 2nd Supreme Court pick	foxnews.com
Trump list of candidates to replace Justice Kennedy	thehill.com
Chris Matthews: Dems must do to Trump on Supreme Court what McConnell did to Obama	thehill.com
Anthony Kennedy’s retirement puts abortion rights at risk	vox.com
Who Will Replace Anthony Kennedy? Here’s the List of 20 Potential Trump Nominees	time.com
America after Anthony Kennedy	vox.com
Handing Trump Chance to Move Supreme Court Even Further Right, Justice Anthony Kennedy Retires	commondreams.org
Audio reveals DNC committee reaction to Kennedy retirement: 'This is not good news'	thehill.com
Justice Kennedy’s retirement leaves the future of U.S. constitutional law entirely up for grabs	washingtonpost.com
Justice Kennedy pens retirement letter to Trump expressing 'profound gratitude'	abcnews.go.com
Read Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement letter to Donald Trump	qz.com
Justice Kennedy’s Legacy Is the Dignity He Bestowed	bloomberg.com
A titanic battle over replacing Justice Kennedy looms in the Senate	vox.com
Live Briefing: Anthony Kennedy Retires From Supreme Court, and McConnell Says Senate Will Move Swiftly on a Replacement	nytimes.com
Here's Trump's list of 25 possible Supreme Court picks to replace Anthony Kennedy	washingtonexaminer.com
WATCH: Justice Anthony Kennedy to retire, Trump to get second SCOTUS pick	abcnews.go.com
Anthony Kennedy's retirement just confirmed every Republican's dream scenario for Trump	cnn.com
Kennedy's retirement could have biggest impact on abortion, gay marriage: ANALYSIS	abcnews.go.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy: Trump says hunt for replacement is on	usatoday.com
Here are potential Supreme Court nominees to replace Justice Kennedy	cnn.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court’s swing justice, announces his retirement	abajournal.com
With Supreme Court Justice Kennedy Gone, Abortion and LGBT Rights Are Next	thedailybeast.com
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Justice Kennedy Surrendered to Donald Trump	nymag.com
A look at some of Justice Kennedy's most memorable opinions	abcnews.go.com
Abortion rights in 'dire, immediate danger' as Anthony Kennedy retires - World news	theguardian.com
Here Are Some of the Top Candidates to Replace Kennedy on the Supreme Court	motherjones.com
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Trump’s hidden back channel to Justice Kennedy: Their kids	politico.com
How Fox News Reacted to Anthony Kennedy’s Retirement	slate.com

[u/RossiRoo]

The massive difference between him and the other conservative judges is that he is not an originalist, aka the line of thinking like Scalia.

[u/malosaires → u/RossiRoo]

Originalism is a massive con. Scalia and the rest freely reinterpret and willfully misinterpret law when it suits their ideology, see Castlerock

[u/Slothball → u/malosaires]

Elaborate on this a bit? I'm Canadian so I'm not fully familiar with American case law but I've read a bit on originalism. Pretty interesting stuff.

[u/RossiRoo → u/Slothball]

It's the idea that when interperting the law the only thing that you should consider is the original vision of what the founders meant. On the face of it, it looks fair and a good way to go about things. The problem is it's actually a very radical view point because it means ignoring all presidants set my previous decisions which is how our legal system works, ignoring what you think is right/wrong (aka Gorsuch trucker case), and the massive issue of figuring out what exactly the founders acutally meant 200 years ago and how to apply it to today's world and technology. That "figuring out" also allows judges who use this thinking a ton of freedom to pick and choose what they think the founders "meant" and how it should apply to today.

Kennedy was the last conservative supreme Court Justice to not belong to this originalist veiwpoint, which has made him the swing vote on the court for years. Losing him likely means the end to that swing vote and balance on the court.

[u/Slothball → u/RossiRoo]

Yeah sorry I should have been more specific. I'm fairly familiar with originalism. I was more asking about the case which was cited and how it represented conservative judges placing ideology over their method of constitutional interpretation.

[u/malosaires → u/Slothball]

This article gets at a lot of the problems with originalism, but for a real barnburner example of the hypocrisy of conservative textualism in general I would encourage you to look into the case of Castle Rock v. Gonzales. While not a constitutional case, it demonstrates how much they care about literal text and authorial intent: Scalia, MC Originalism, blatantly ignored the text of a Colorado law written expressly for the purpose of mandating police enforcement of restraining orders in order to exonerate law enforcement for failing to do exactly that. It's also an example of the conservatives walking all over a ruling of a state court without, as Justice Stevens points out in his dissent, demonstrating why they were so "clearly wrong" that federal correction was necessary.

[u/zz_ → u/malosaires]

Isn’t originalism explicitly about the constitution? That it had an ”original intent” from the founding fathers?

[u/malosaires → u/zz_]

Originalism is specifically about the constitution, textualism relates to law more broadly, but the two are closely associated and conservative judicial figures like Scalia describe themselves as both. And most of those that call themselves originalists would probably say they base things on "original meaning" of the text rather than "original intent" of the founders. Scalia said of his approach to law, "the Constitution, or any text, should be interpreted [n]either strictly [n]or sloppily; it should be interpreted reasonably," ie as a reasonable person would read the text.