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Speaker 1: For many years, Justice Anthony Kennedy has been the swing

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Speaker 1: vote in some of the most controversial constitutional cases that

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Speaker 1: the Court hears, famously on gay rights, among many other things,

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Speaker 1: and if President Trump can name a replacement for him

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Speaker 1: on the Court, the balance of power might shift decisively

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Speaker 1: to the right. So current rumors that he's contemplating retirement

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Speaker 1: raise excitement among conservatives and trepidation among liberals. Here to

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Speaker 1: talk with us about Justice Kennedy's possible retirement and what's

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Speaker 1: what the court is going to be facing is Justice

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Speaker 1: Corsets joins is our own Greg store, our Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: co host and Bloomberg News Supreme Court reporter. Greg. What

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Speaker 1: are you hearing about Justice Kennedy. Well, I've been spending

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Speaker 1: some time talking to some former law clerks, and there's

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Speaker 1: definitely a difference of opinion as to whether he will

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Speaker 1: retire at the end of this year. It is certainly

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Speaker 1: at least a possibility that those of us who care

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Speaker 1: about the court are going to have to watch for.

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Speaker 1: There are a few signs he's scheduled his law clerk

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Speaker 1: reunion a year earlier than he normally would uh and

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Speaker 1: in the very end, at the very end, of the term.

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Speaker 1: So it's at least possible that that that reunion the

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Speaker 1: last weekend of June will be right around the time

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Speaker 1: he makes an announcement. I don't know for sure, but

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Speaker 1: I'm certainly going to be paying attention. Yes you are,

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Speaker 1: and so are we. But Kennedy is the most important

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Speaker 1: person on that court because he has been the he

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Speaker 1: is the swing vote, and he's certainly back in that position. Now.

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Speaker 1: Would he want to give up that power? Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: a real question June. And and for for those people

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Speaker 1: who say no, I don't think he's going to retire,

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Speaker 1: that's one of the biggest things that they point to.

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Speaker 1: He has been since six the most important justice on

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Speaker 1: this court, the swing justice on so many issues. And

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Speaker 1: if Justice corsages anything like what what everyone is expecting,

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Speaker 1: he will be Justice Kennedy will stay right in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the court. Um. And so when the court

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Speaker 1: takes up um, you know, cases involving the Trump's travel band,

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Speaker 1: voter id laws, religious rights, and and and gay rights. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a good chance he will be right in the

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Speaker 1: middle again. And he and you may not want to

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Speaker 1: give that up just yet. Well, speaking of Justice Gorcich,

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Speaker 1: we call him that now is he's going to be

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Speaker 1: on the court. Uh, He's going to start very soon

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Speaker 1: here in cases next week he'll hear some what what's

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Speaker 1: on the docket for Justice Gorciach and arrested justices to

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Speaker 1: hear as he takes the bench. He's had an awful

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Speaker 1: lot to learn in the past week, just one in

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Speaker 1: a Monday. They have seven cases next week, three of

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Speaker 1: them on Monday. The biggest one that he's going to

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Speaker 1: hear is a church state case. They has to do

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Speaker 1: with a Missouri funding program for for playgrounds, and Missouri

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Speaker 1: said that according to our constitution, we can't give the

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Speaker 1: money to a church that wanted this this money for

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Speaker 1: resurfacing playgrounds. Uh. And so everybody's gonna be watching to see,

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Speaker 1: you know what, what sorts of questions we get from

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Speaker 1: Justice gorste and any indications about what type of justice

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Speaker 1: is gonna be Greg Neil Gorsch attended his first conference

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Speaker 1: today of the Supreme Court. Explain what happens they air

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Speaker 1: and when we'll learn some of what happened. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: that's that's a private conference. Uh. And for all I know,

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Speaker 1: it's still going on right now. It's something that only

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Speaker 1: the justices attend, they do things like decide whether they're

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Speaker 1: going to take up new cases. They talk about which

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Speaker 1: opinions are ready to be issued. There are some traditions

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Speaker 1: there that will affect justice courses very much. Namely that

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Speaker 1: the junior justice, which has been Justice Kagan and now

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Speaker 1: is Justice Corsage, UH, is the one who's in charge

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Speaker 1: of answering the door at that conference because nobody else

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Speaker 1: is allowed in. So somebody knocks on the door to

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Speaker 1: bring something to a justice justice course, it has to

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Speaker 1: stand up and and open the door. And UH. He's

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Speaker 1: also in charge gonna be in charge of keeping records

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Speaker 1: of of what they decided those conferences and then go ahead.

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Speaker 1: And I remember that Justice Brier often talked about how

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Speaker 1: long he was the person that's the junior person answering

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Speaker 1: that door, But that Kagan didn't didn't last too long, No,

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Speaker 1: not not quite as long. Justice Brier did set the record. UM,

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Speaker 1: And I was just gonna say, to answer the rest

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Speaker 1: of your question, we will uh that that conference today

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Speaker 1: will produce a list of orders that will get Monday

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Speaker 1: morning at nine thirty. That will be mostly, you know,

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Speaker 1: decisions on whether or not to take up new cases,

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Speaker 1: and those may give us some some concrete indications of

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Speaker 1: of how Justice Corsage UH is voting on things, because

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Speaker 1: we may we may see in there that he is

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Speaker 1: either voted or not voted to to take certain cases. Greg,

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Speaker 1: we got about thirty seconds left. Or are there any

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Speaker 1: you know, four or four splits in any cases that

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Speaker 1: he's going to be the deciding vote on. It's a

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Speaker 1: good question. We don't know yet, and we may find

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Speaker 1: out even as early as today. There are a bunch

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Speaker 1: of candidates. There's a case involving UH suits against banks

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Speaker 1: alleging a predatory lending by the City of Miami. There's

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Speaker 1: a redistricting case that both of those are candidates, but

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Speaker 1: we won't know that until we actually get the court

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Speaker 1: saying that we want to hear a new round of

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Speaker 1: argument with Justice Corsage. Well, thank you, Greg. That's Greg's store,

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Speaker 1: our Bloomberg Glock co host and the Bloomberg News Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court order telling us about what's gonna happen with Justice

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Speaker 1: Kennedy and Justice Corsage. And we don't really know