text: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is the swing vote on the Supreme Court, and the NYT is reporting that rumors of his retirement are 'swooping DC.'
  Of course, almost this time last year, the same rumors were 'swirling', but these rumors seem to be more prolific and blatant.
  Last summer, the same rumor that Justice Kennedy would announce his retirement in early 2018.
  It wouldn't be effective until the end of the current Term, around late June 2018. But Justice Kennedy was said to be planning on this early announcement to avoid a "Merrick Garland" situation. This would also have the added benefit of reducing the likelihood of SCOTUS becoming a big issue in the 2018 midterm elections.
  Nina Totenberg reported at NPR:
  It is unlikely that Kennedy will remain on the court for the full four years of the Trump presidency. While he long ago hired his law clerks for the coming term, he has not done so for the following term (beginning Oct. 2018), and has let applicants for those positions know he is considering retirement.
  There is definitely precedent for a justice giving a heads up to clerkship applicants about the possibility of his retiring, as Greg Stohr of Bloomberg noted on Twitter:
  Difft situation but as far back as the 90s, Justice Stevens told clerkship applicants there was chance he would retire. (He did, in 2010.) https://t.co/Zu1jt1SKFY
  — Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) July 3, 2017
  Neither are what you would call Trump fans. While Ginsburg may be very ideologically opposed to the President, Kennedy is a moderate conservative.
  I suspect that Justice Kennedy might have some personal distaste for certain aspects of President Trump, but has been said to have no problem with the President's Supreme Court shortlist. It includes a number of former Kennedy law clerks. And remember that President Trump's first SCOTUS nominee, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, is a former Kennedy clerk as well.