Justice Kennedy “...was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan on November 12, 1987, and confirmed by the United States Senate on February 17, 1988..”
And his predecessor Lewis Powell retired on June 26, 1987, well before the election began in earnest.
It took Reagan five months to nominate a replacement. That would be July 2016 if Obama follows Reagan's pattern. That would be right before the August recess and two months before the conventions.
That is no time for the Senate to prepare for confirmation hearings.
-PJ