Justice Kennedy reportedly tells clerk applicants he may retire in 2018

President Trump and Justice Anthony Kennedy
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

Rumors of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's forthcoming retirement are swirling, and though Kennedy has yet to make any public statement of his plans, NPR reports he is privately suggesting a retirement date in 2018 or 2019 — safely within President Trump's first term and thus guaranteeing Trump a second SCOTUS seat to fill.

"While he long ago hired his law clerks for the coming term," the story notes, "he has not done so for the following term (beginning Oct. 2018), and has let applicants for those positions know he is considering retirement." A Reagan nominee who has often served as a swing voter in the court's most controversial cases, Kennedy's departure will significantly change the face of the court, especially if he is replaced by a conservative in the mold of Trump's first pick, Neil Gorsuch.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.