Make that next-to-worse nightmare. Justice Anthony Kennedy has long been a swing vote on the high court, and the announcement that he will retire, which came a short time ago, would have been infinitely worse news had it been made by Democtratic stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It’s still grim news for the minority party, which has been having a rough go of it since Donald Trump took the oath of office in January 2017.
Josh Gerstein of Politico warns:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The departure of the 81-year-old Kennedy from his post after more than three decades has the potential to radically reshape the court on issues such as abortion and affirmative action. …
His exit is expected to create a furious fight in the Senate over his replacement, and it could thrust the often overlooked issue of judicial selection to the forefront in close Senate races in this year’s midterms. The retirement comes as a blow to Democrats, and cries of “Ohh” and “Oh, my God” punctuated a call between members of the Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws panel as the news broke Wednesday.
The crepe is being hung all over the left side of the Twitterspehere, with CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin tweeting:
Anthony Kennedy is retiring. Abortion will be illegal in twenty states in 18 months. #SCOTUS
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) June 27, 2018
Liberal activist Igor Volsky built a tweet around a doctored version of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s press release regarding Kennedy’s announcement:
Here's the statement @SenSchumer should issue concerning Justice Kennedy's retirement: pic.twitter.com/UhWxy2tk7j
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) June 27, 2018
The Left, which reveled in the often-radical-left manner in which Barack Obama served his two terms in the White House, should begin acclimating to the idea that the country, which was never the liberal paradise they assumed it would be when Obama became president, is destined to get only redder for the foreseeable future. To borrow from political scientist John Legend, if they don’t like it, they can get out.
