When SCOTUS Justice Antolin Scalia died suddenly in early 2016, it seemed like we were poised to make changes to the court that would swing it in the direction of human rights for years to come. It was still too early to tell who the presidential candidates would be, but it seemed that Hillary Clinton would be the presumed Democratic party candidate, and none of the candidates on the Republican side seemed electable. Still - Senate majority leader "Turtle" McConnell created an unresolved constitutional crisis by refusing to take a vote on President Obama's replacement pick until after the election.

Perhaps McConnell had some "inside information", because the gambit worked. The worst possible nightmare happened - tRump became the candidate, and then the president-elect. A man who knows nothing of the Constitution or law (or even common decency) got to choose a Supreme Court justice. The spate of recent rulings show the consequences of that.

Now we get the news that justice Kennedy is retiring at the end of July. The announcement was sudden and unexpected, and hits like a punch in the gut. He was a moderate "swing" vote, which isn't like losing a more liberal-minded justice, but it means that tRump gets a chance to put his stamp on a 2nd seat, and move the court even further back in time.

Who will it be? The name Brett Kavanaugh has been tossed around, and he is considered to be on the short list:

What's clear is that tRump wants to leave his stain...er "mark" - on the court for 40-45 years, and considers this to be a good campaign issue to get people motivated to vote for Republicans to ensure that he gets confirmed. This is because Republicans fear that Democrats will do to them what they did to the Democrats - deny a confirmation until after the elections later this year. It's unclear whether Democrats have the power to actually do that - they would need to find a couple Republicans to side with them. As to McConnell, he's suddenly found his Constitutional duties to be the most important thing in the world:

The concern is that with a more conservative SCOTUS, right-wing groups will file lawsuits (or that the U.S. Congress or state legislatures could try passing regressive laws), with the hope of driving them to the Supreme Court to get their social issues forced upon us. There are legitimate concerns about this. However, doing so may not be good for conservatives politically:

So here's hoping the young people are truly the future. They've grown up assuming all these rights are a given, and they may be finding out they have to fight for them just like their parents and grandparents did. This is definitely a setback, but the long-term future looks better, with white men becoming a minority, and young idealistic progressive-minded people taking their place in the political sphere.