Trump's next Supreme Court justice appointment will cement legacy: Sean Spicer
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer told FOX Business that the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will give President Trump an opportunity to shape the direction of the high court.
“It is probably the biggest legacy that this president will have and one of the untold success stories so far,” Spicer said during an interview on “The Intelligence Report” on Wednesday.
Kennedy informed the White House in a letter that he is stepping down after 30 years of service, leaving an opening for the Trump administration to select a second high-court pick.
Spicer said Trump will nominate a justice who will have a much more lasting effect on the highest U.S. court for many years to come.
“And that really bodes well for people who believe in a more constitutional interpretation as opposed to what we’ve seen before with a lot of liberal judges trying to legislate from the bench,” he said.
Trump’s selection of Justice Neil Gorsuch, a former law clerk for Kennedy who took over the seat occupied by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, has already had an effect on U.S. policy.
“You are seeing these justices not just on the Supreme Court, the circuit court and other federal court appointees that are not just conservative but they are also younger and I think that’s important,” Spicer said. “You saw this with Neil Gorsuch.”
Kennedy, 81, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and sworn in in 1988.