Free Republic

President Donald Trump is closing in on his next Supreme Court nominee, with three federal judges leading the competition to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump’s top contenders for the vacancy at this time are federal appeals judges Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Raymond Kethledge, said a person familiar with Trump’s thinking who was not authorized to speak publicly. Working closely with a White House team and consulting with lawmakers and outside advisers, Trump has spent the week deliberating on the choice. He conducted interviews on Monday and Tuesday. He has not yet publicly indicated that he has narrowed...

President Donald Trump's controversial tactics at the southern border have managed to draw the ire of a powerful neighbor to the north - the Kennedys. Ethel Kennedy and her brood have been vocal about their disdain for the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy for weeks now, with Ethel herself even announcing that she would be fasting in protest. And on the eve of Fourth of July the family launched a more direct attack on the administration - and First Lady Melania Trump in particular - by breaking out some paint and and green jackets, on which they each wrote: 'I...

“Trained to Kill is one of those essential books that ‘our free press’ is all too likely to ignore, because of all the awful truth between its covers—especially its shattering confirmation that David Attlee Phillips of the CIA did introduce the author [Veciano] to Lee Harvey Oswald just weeks before the assassination of John Kennedy. While thus exploding the old myth of Oswald as ‘lone gunman,’ this chilling memoir also sheds new light on Che Guevara’s murder, Operation Condor, and the fanatic amorality behind the management of US covert operations.” —Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media, culture, and communication at...

If you’ve been fed up with the left’s hijacking of America, he certainly is fun -- because bit by bit he’s dismantling their power, supply train, and prestige. The shaky premises upon which they’ve controlled life in America for some time is being exposed and overturned. Let me explain. Here comes the Judge This week the Supreme Court by 5-4 majorities upset three linchpins of leftwing rule in America: On Tuesday the Supreme Court released its opinions in Trump v. Hawaii and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. On Wednesday morning the Supreme Court released its final...

Recently the Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, extended constitutional rights to enemy aliens captured on the battlefield and held outside the United States. As a result of this case, Guantanamo Bay detainees now have more rights than do prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. This has never before been the policy of the United States, nor has the court ever before granted such rights to those detained outside of U.S. jurisdiction. The activities of a released prisoner, Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, discussed in the following report written by the sister of the pilot killed on Flight 77...

How dare an 81-year-old man retire from the Supreme Court. How dare he. That, in a nutshell, seems to be the widespread reaction among many liberals to the announcement that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will step down from the bench next month. "Anthony Kennedy Just Destroyed His Legacy as a Gay Rights Hero," announced a headline at Slate. Twitter, that great Hieronymus Bosch painting of our collective id, was aflame in what can only be described as full-on liberal panic. "The future of our democracy is at stake," proclaimed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. This gnashing of teeth and...

Years ago, when I was a young lawyer, I had an interesting conversation with a much older judge. He was a Democrat, an old-school liberal, and he said something revealing: “There’s the law, and then there’s what’s right. My job is to do what’s right.” Or, to put the philosophy in the words of one of my leftist law professors, “You determine the outcome first, then you do your reasoning.” Time after time, that’s exactly what Justice Anthony Kennedy appeared to do. I can think of few better summaries of Kennedy’s jurisprudence — especially in the cases that fired his...

The retiring justice seems to have been a crucial obstacle to hearing Second Amendment cases. Although Anthony Kennedy joined all three decisions in which the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, his retirement probably means the Court will be less reluctant to define the contours of that right. In the decade since the Court first ruled that a law was inconsistent with the Second Amendment, it has passed up almost every opportunity to resolve lingering questions about which forms of gun control are constitutional. It seems clear that Kennedy bears much of the responsibility...

Republican Senator Mike Lee gave the following speech on the Senate floor regarding the 45th annual March for Life. Mr. President, today hundreds of thousands of Americans from all walks of life will participate in the 45th annual March for Life. Why do these citizens march, year after year? It certainly isn’t for their health … Or for the media coverage. No, these Americans march on behalf of those who cannot. They march for uniquely vulnerable members of the human family. For the unborn. For those threatened by abortion. And for the countless innocent lives already lost. These Americans march...

Brett Kavanaugh (2.5:1) Amul Thapar (3.6:1) Amy Coney Barrett (4.0:1) Raymond Kethledge (5.0:1) Kevin Newsom (6.0:1) Patrick Wyrick (8.0:1) Britt Grant (8.0:1) Thomas Hardiman (9.5:1) Mike Lee (9.5:1) William Pryor (10.0:1)

Judge Brett Kavanaugh sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Several news articles, including those here, here, and here, mention him as a leading contender to be nominated by President Donald Trump to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spiked the panic on the left by announcing efforts to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy before the midterms. The Supreme Court Justice announced his retirement Wednesday, effective July 31, after more than three decades on the high court. His successor, chosen by President Trump, could transform the Supreme Court for years to come and the left is in a meltdown. “We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after the news broke. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley echoed the expectations that the nomination process would begin soon. “For...

The golden age of conservative jurisprudence is here. Fisher v. University of Texas protected racial discrimination in college admissions. Justice Kennedy wrote the decision joined by Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Breyer. The court’s only African-American justice dissented. As did Roberts and Alito. Scalia had been the most vigorous of the Supreme Court members in challenging racial preferences in college admissions. But he had passed away. The 4-3 decision that continued the shameful tradition of progressive racist jurisprudence will become an impossible relic once President Trump’s next Supreme Court nominee joins Gorsuch on the bench. As we wrap up a season of...

Members of the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday were heard groaning and saying, “Oh, my God,” when their meeting was broken up with news of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement. Politico reported-- citing an audio recording-- that the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee was interrupted by the news alert that was followed with one person saying, “This is not good news.” **SNIP** The New York Times editorial board called Kennedy's decision “crushing.”

Earlier this afternoon, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement. Court observers long thought it was possible that he’d step down after this most recent term, but now it’s confirmed. The moment has arrived. In the first two years of his first term, President Trump is set to nominate just as many Supreme Court justices as Clinton, Bush, and Obama nominated in all eight years of their presidencies. That means that no matter what happens the rest of his presidency — whether it’s cut short by scandal or it extends to two full terms — he’ll make an indelible mark on...

Various civil rights groups are backing calls from Democratic lawmakers to hold off on a vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's replacement until after the November elections. Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, says senators need to put country over party and use every tool to stop what she calls President Donald Trump's plan "to take over the Supreme Court for the next 40 years." Despite the Republican majority, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund says she's confident senators can be persuaded to hold off....

A writer for Comedy Central said he wished Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was dead after Kennedy announced his intention to retire, giving President Donald Trump another court pick. “I wish this Kennedy had been shot instead of the other ones,” Curtis Cooke wrote on Twitter Wednesday in response to news of Kennedy’s retirement. The “other ones” is an apparent reference to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Cooke is a writer on Comedy Central’s “The Jim Jefferies Show.” Cook’s death-wish for Kennedy comes amid an increasingly volatile political environment, in which...

Hollywood celebrities jumped on social media Wednesday and fired off a series of emotional reactions, calls to “fight,” and cataclysmic predictions in response to the news that Justice Anthony Kennedy had announced his retirement from the Supreme Court. “ok, dems. this is real. all y’all paying attention? this is how you lose a country,” actor Don Cheadle said on Twitter. “all of our rights are in the balance. urge your leadership to resist when trump attempts to appoint the next swamp thing out of the pez dispenser or kiss it bye bye.” Other stars, like Will & Grace actress Debra...

President Trump said he would move quickly to name a replacement. He also said his nominee would be drawn from a list of 25 names that the White House issued in November. McConnell said the Senate will move quickly on a replacement. Any Democratic hopes that Mr. McConnell might hold up the Senate’s consideration of Justice Kennedy’s successor until after the midterm elections were quickly put to rest. Mr. McConnell took to the Senate floor not long after Justice Kennedy’s announcement to make clear that he expected to begin consideration of a replacement as soon as possible.

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, precipitating a cataclysmic election year confirmation battle. Though the White House has publicly identified as many as 25 possible candidates to succeed Kennedy, the early favorites for the pick are drawn from a small crop of young appeals court judges popular in Washington’s conservative legal circles. Speaking in the Oval Office shortly after Kennedy’s announcement, Trump confirmed he would draw his selection from a list of possible Supreme Court nominees assembled during the campaign. Five individuals were added to that list in November 2017. These early favorites include...