[Andrew Szilvasy]

This is bad news. Why would you retire when Trump is the president unless (1) you like Trump, (2) you don't care about other people, or (3) you're an idiot?

[Roger Slater]

He voted with the conservatives in the last several cases that finished the term, so he may not view the prospect of a conservative replacement with the same horror some of us do. But this is still devastating news. One can only hope for a miracle, such as Jeff Flake making good on the promise of some of his empty rhetoric and preventing a vote.

[Max Goodman]

A man his age might have reasons other than those you suggest, but I understand your reaction. This is terrible news.

Our only hope is that the Dems will find the will and the way to do to Trump what the Republicans did to Obama the last time there was a vacancy on the Court, and, apart from the Republicans controlling the Senate until at least January, the Dems recent track record is not good.

[Andrew Szilvasy]

You're right on this, but he's going to be replaced with a younger, more ideologically-driven justice, almost certainly white and male. And he's 81: would have been the prime replacement target for a democratic president in 2021, particularly since RBG is 85 and Breyer is 79. They'll be 88 and 82, respectively, if they survive and don't retire, by the time they can get replaced. Now we're stuck with whatever person Trump appoints, and have to hope for good health.

Counting on Flake or Collins is foolish, though it's sort of all we have, huh?

[Orwn Acra]

What I have to say about conservatives (the kind that espouse the importance of tradition and Western ideals while simultaneously failing to acknowledge that those very ideals were once considered progressive), even the ones who dislike Trump--and there are several on Eratosphere but I won't name them because I don't want to be the author of an ald hem attack--is not suitable for posting on this website.

[Roger Slater]

The Dems have the will, just not the power.

It's pretty hopeless. Longshot chance that something turns up during the confirmation hearing, some sort of scandal, forcing Trump to pull the nomination. Or some sort of stunning Mueller revelation comes up to cause enough uproar to delay or upset the process. We just have to make it past the election if the Senate turns blue, but November has never seemed so far away.

[Aaron Novick]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

One can only hope for a miracle, such as Jeff Flake making good on the promise of some of his empty rhetoric and preventing a vote.

Would you like to buy me the hat I'll have to eat if that happens? I'm not getting my next paycheck until September...

[Catherine Chandler]

You can bet one of the first things on the all-but-certain 6-3 agenda will be an attempt to harm women's health issues further.


This article's final three paragraphs unfortunately have proven prescient.


A sad day in America. And sadder times ahead, I'm afraid.

[John Isbell]

Stacking the benches with young ideological conservatives has been a key not-so-hidden agenda of this administration from Day One. As noted upthread, the only hope is incompetence in vetting the Trump candidate before nomination - a reasonable hope - or news from Mueller. I don't see any hope from either side of Congress.
This, the bow to Trump, will be Kennedy's legacy.

Cheers,
John

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by John Isbell

This, the bow to Trump, will be Kennedy's legacy.

It will certainly be remembered. Whether it will be the worst part of his legacy is largely up to his successor (or, he added optimistically, the result of a quorum maneuver).

I think I'm violating rules by posting this poem here. Sue me.

Leavery-peevery
Anthony Kennedy
Gave us George W.
(Bush versus Gore),

Then stepped aside for a
President who—rather
Ultra-ambitiously—
Stank even more.