Justice Kennedy Retirement Announcement Puts the Left in a Panic

Pipe down, Chuck and Di.

Democrat lawmakers and their supporters must feel like they’re in a nightmare and can’t wake up.

It’s kind of amusing, actually.

With today’s announcement that Justice Anthony Kennedy will be retiring at the end of July, liberal ghouls, with their hearts full of malice and dreams of infanticide are losing their minds across social media.

Justice Kennedy, considered a moderate, was the swing vote on many issues, but on social issues, such as gay marriage and fiscal nightmares, like Obamacare, he’s been a reliable vote for the left.

Was he the gatekeeper preventing a rehearing of Roe versus Wade?

To read the panicked reaction across social media, you would think so.

More than anything, the Senate will be voting on overturning Roe v Wade although almost everyone pushing for confirmation will pretend that's not what they're voting on even though they know it is.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 27, 2018

Without Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, women’s reproductive freedom and the fate of Roe v. Wade now swing in the balance at the whim of Donald J. Trump.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) June 27, 2018

Anyone who tells you that Roe v. Wade is "not really at risk" doesn't know what they are talking about.

Anyone who votes for Trump's nominee is voting to overturn Roe. Period.

— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) June 27, 2018

I’m worried about Roe v. Wade.

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) June 27, 2018

Delicious.

No doubt to that end, those Democrat lawmakers who are likely hearing the wails of protestation from their constituency have already began calling for a halt on any proposed nomination or confirmation hearing.

President Trump has a short list for Supreme Court picks and House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced that a confirmation vote should be expected by this Fall.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) took to the Senate floor after McConnell’s announcement to urge Republican lawmakers not to move forward with such a vote before the midterm election.

Schumer said that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should show consistency and respect for his own precedent by delaying Senate confirmation proceedings for Kennedy’s successor until 2019, when a new Congress is seated.

“Millions of people are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the president’s nominee and their voices deserve to be heard,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

He said “anything by that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.”

Schumer and his Democrat colleagues are still miffed about Merrick Garland, former President Barack Obama’s moderate choice for the seat now occupied by Neil Gorsuch.

Schumer: "Our Republican colleagues in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016: Not to consider a Supreme Court justice in an election year." (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/GC3JcxFUp7

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 27, 2018

Along with Schumer, Senator Dianne Feinstein also was quick to use the Garland argument.

“Leader McConnell set that standard in 2016 when he denied Judge [Merrick] Garland a hearing for nearly a year, and the Senate should follow the McConnell Standard,” Feinstein said shortly after Kennedy announced his retirement.

McConnell quickly responded to the announcement that Kennedy was retiring by saying that the Senate would vote in the fall on President Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee.

“We’re now four months away from an election to determine the party that will control the Senate,” Feinstein added. “There should be no consideration of a Supreme Court nominee until the American people have a chance to weigh in.”

Salty.

Top Dem on Judiciary Cmte, @SenFeinstein wants to wait until after election to consider Kennedy’s replacement: “Leader McConnell set that standard in 2016 when he denied Judge Garland a hearing for nearly a year, and the Senate should follow the McConnell Standard.” pic.twitter.com/Aau3sCi7Tc

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) June 27, 2018

Republicans hold a skintight majority in the Senate. The rules were changed in 2017 to allow for a simple majority to confirm a SCOTUS nominee. If that majority flips in the midterm elections, that SCOTUS seat could remain empty until President Trump is out of office – at least.

The problem with the argument of the Democrats is that the problem Republicans had with Merrick Garland was that it was during an election season for the presidency. Traditionally, out of respect for the incoming administration, presidents put in that position have declined to put forth a new nominee for SCOTUS.

This is only the midterm, and Trump will be in office at least until 2020. He has a right to nominate someone to take that seat. It’s not right to ask a sitting president to not do what every other president is allowed to do, just because you’re hoping the landscape in the Senate looks different after November.

In the meantime, Let’s all revel in the breakdown, and consider that maybe they’re on to something. Maybe we can get a rehearing on some of the most horrendous decisions in our nation’s history, like Roe v. Wade.

Kennedy retires. Roe v. Wade is gone now. Obergefell might be next.

But hey, all you Jill Stein voters voted your conscience. Thanks for that.

— CBPolitics (@ClistonBrown) June 27, 2018

We are in serious danger of losing gay marriage and Roe v Wade.

— Amy Siskind

I mean, we can hope.