Justice Anthony Kennedy Retires — Judge Brett Kavanaugh Nominated for SCOTUS

At the end of last month, Justice Anthony Kennedy, announced he would be retiring and stepping down effective July 31st, 2018. On the evening of July 9th, President Trump announced his top pick to fill Justice Kennedy’s vacant seat: Judge Brett Kavanaugh currently presides in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

This recent news regarding Kennedy’s retirement comes just after the 2017-2018 Supreme Court session. He is also widely known as the “swing vote” in many Supreme Court decisions. So what will happen next and what does this mean for the future? Today on Lawyer 2 Lawyer, guest host Laurence Colletti, Elizabeth Slattery, a legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, and David Lat, editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, discuss Justice Kennedy’s retirement and Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. In addition, they explore the subsequent reaction to Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, bias and ideology at SCOTUS, the recent Supreme Court session and Landmark cases therein, and the upcoming Supreme Court session.

Elizabeth Slattery is a legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. She analyzes cases before the Supreme Court, judicial nominations, and the proper role of the courts.

David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel.

The “Marshall’s Cry” provided by Oyez, a free law project by Justia and the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.

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