Now that he’s nominated Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, President Trump appears ready to make a second nomination. Kevin Daley of the Daily Caller explains.
The Trump administration has quietly encouraged Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to retire in recent weeks, sending signals meant to coax him into leaving the bench.
The signals have been delivered with the subtlety of a hand grenade.
The most clear indication came late Monday. The New York Times’ Adam Liptak, citing administration sources, reports the White House has identified Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Raymond Kethledge of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as the frontrunners for the next appointment to the high court. Both men clerked for Kennedy early in their careers, and are widely respected as serious and sober jurists. As such, the purpose of the leak is plainly to reassure an “embarrassingly dramatic” Kennedy, no doubt brooding over his retirement through comparisons to the greatest archetypes of literature.
The administration has also placed former Kennedy clerks in prominent posts throughout the U.S. Department of Justice. The president has named Rachel Brand associate attorney general and Steven Andrew Engel assistant attorney general, both alums on Kennedy’s chambers.
