It's only Thursday, leaving plenty of time for things to get worse. But, even if nothing else piles on, this week qualifies as a bad one -- politically, that is.
A number of Supreme Court decisions (on voting districts, on Trump's travel ban, on gutting the power of unions, on abortion, on the death penalty -- and, anticipated for next term, partisan gerrymandering) depended on Kennedy's deciding vote. And then today one of my greatest fears piled on.
Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement. Kennedy has been the swing vote on most cases where a 4 to 4 divide eventually went the liberal way. Of course, he also was the swing vote in ones that went the other way too. But none of the other "conservative" justices came close to siding with liberals at often as Kennedy.
Most notably, Kennedy wrote the majority opinions in all the major cases where sexual orientation and gender identity were updated into the modern world. And he wrote eloquently and with great feeling and respect for inclusiveness.
Now Trump will nominate his replacement, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already said that he will hold the confirmation vote in the fall.
What we should expect is that there will now be a firm 5 to 4 split, with conservatives having the advantage -- and without the hope of one breaking away to vote with the liberal justices.
It's a sad, terrible, awful, no-good day.
Ralph
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