Justice Kennedy retiring, giving Trump major high court pick

Rather, it seems more probable that Trump – who will only need Republican votes to get his nominee confirmed in the Senate – will pick a judge in the mold of Neil Gorsuch, his first Supreme Court pick who has emerged as far-right voice on the court.

Justice Kennedy, 81, announced in a letter to President Trump that he would be stepping down from the court on July 31.

A person familiar with the process said White House officials are focused primarily on five federal appeals court judges – Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amul Thapar – all Republican appointees with conservative track records.

Let us not dwell on the obvious truth that they could trust Trump’s judgment because he promised not to exercise it: He promised that he would choose Scalia’s replacement from a list provided by people who have actually thought about such matters – principally, the conservative lawyers of the Federalist Society.

The case has been central to the Trump administration’s immigration policy, presenting a key test of the president’s campaign promise to restrict immigration and secure America’s borders.

The person Trump picks for the seat is nearly certainly going to be more conservative than Kennedy.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it would be the “height of hypocrisy” for the Senate to vote on a new Supreme Court justice before the November midterm elections.

Kennedy wrote a letter to President Donald Trump to inform him of the decision, CNN reported. In a CNN exit poll, 70 percent of 2016 American voters said the Supreme Court was an important factor in their vote. “At a minimum, we have to make sure that we vet people coming into the country”, the Republican president said, referring in a statement to “this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians”.

Kennedy has been the swing vote in supporting the landmark case, which supports a woman’s right to have an abortion. I think they may feel emboldened by today’s decision. If either or both Collins and Murkowski end up opposing the nominee, support from some combination of this Democratic trio will be necessary to achieve a simple majority in the Senate.

But there’s no doubt that Trump, in the second year of his presidency, can nominate another justice. Justice Gorsuch filled the Scalia seat, and a Trump nominee will fill the Kennedy seat. The Supreme Court allowed it to go largely into effect in December while the legal challenge continued.

The idea of the travel ban started in December 2015, when Trump’s campaign called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”. The Senate is a majoritarian body now on all nominations and will likely stay that way.

AMY CONEY BARRETT of Indiana, US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit: Barrett is a relatively new appeals court judge in Chicago, confirmed previous year after a bruising confirmation fight.