Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire this summer, GOP senator says

A Republican U.S. senator says that Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote who has decided many pivotal cases on the Supreme Court, will retire this summer.

Audio of Nevada's Dean Heller speaking at a recent event in Las Vegas obtained by POLITICO showed his view that the departure of the justice would be a boost for his reelection campaign this fall.

"Kennedy is going to retire around sometime early summer," Heller, who is viewed as vulnerable in November after Hillary Clinton won Nevada in 2016.

The justice was appointed by conservative Ronald Reagan after the failed nomination of Robert Bork, but his judicial philosophy has placed him in the middle of the court on many important issues and given him an incredibly powerful position in the political life of the country.

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At 81 years old, he is the second oldest of the Supreme Court justices, who serve for life, after liberal Bill Clinton choice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Kennedy, who has written historic decisions such as the one that allowed gay marriage nationwide, has not commented publicly about the report.

The makeup of the Court did not shift dramatically after the last change in justices, when Barack Obama's pick of Merrick Garland was delayed until after the 2016 election by Republicans who voted in Neil Gorsuch.

It is not clear whether President Trump would pick someone similarly in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia, or would go for a compromise candidate.

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