Kennedy seen leaving Supremes

JUSTICE ANTHONY Kennedy, the swing vote who has decided many pivotal cases on the Supreme Court, will retire this summer, according to a senator from Nevada.

Republican Dean Heller shared the revelation at an event in Las Vegas, Politico reported Friday.

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

The justice was appointed by President 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.

At 81 years old, he is the second oldest of the Supreme Court justice behind liberal Bill Clinton choice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Kennedy has not commented publicly. 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. Republicans voted in Neil Gorsuch.