Side note.......y’know it really would be a good thing if Justice Thomas retired this year.......
Why wouldn’t Thomas retire by the summer regardless of RBG? He has the years and he has the RV.
Last year, I was talking to an acquaintance who is a former clerk of Thomas’s who is still in touch with the Justice. He predicted that Thomas would resign if the Republicans held on to the Senate, and that his replacement would be Jim Ho, currently on the 5th Circuit.
That conversation was right after Kennedy retired, and he correctly predicted that the appointee would be Kavanaugh (which he said was due to a gentleman’s agreement between Kennedy and the administration).
I don’t take it as gospel, but the source certainly has more inside knowledge than I do, and it certainly makes a lot of sense for Thomas to retire. He’s been on the court for 27 years.