SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

JUSTICE KENNEDY HINTS AT RETIREMENT – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy may retire next year, giving the Trump administration the opportunity to fill the vacancy and move the court to the right for years to come.  Kennedy, who turns 81 on July 23, has told people who are applying to be his law clerks for the court’s term beginning in October 2018 that he is considering retirement, NPR reported.  The first response of liberals to this possibility will probably be to increase their attempts to get Trump removed from office, to prevent him from nominating another justice. 

HARVARD HONORS SCALIA – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   Harvard Law School has announced the establishment of the Antonin Scalia Professorship of Law in honor of the late US Supreme Court justice.  The professorship is endowed by the Considine Family Foundation, the benefactors both Harvard graduates (Terry from the Law School in 1968, and Betsy from the Business School in 1977).  “Justice Scalia had a singular impact on statutory analysis and legal thought. He also had a great love of learning, so it is especially meaningful that he will be honored with a professorship that will provide enduring support for teaching and scholarship at the Law School and beyond,” said Martha Minow, dean of the Law School.  You may be sure that the party liners at Harvard will work to have a leftist named to the professorship.  It's a game played all the time.

ANYONE IN FAVOR OF THIS? – FROM THE INDEPENDENT:  Within three decades people will no longer be having sex to procreate, a professor from Stanford University has said.   Hank Greely, the director of Stanford’s Law School’s Center for Law and the Biosciences, believes the reproductive process will begin with parents choosing from a range of embryos created in a lab with their DNA.  Although this can already take place, Mr Greely believes it will become far cheaper to do so and couples will opt for this method to prevent diseases.   And what if people prefer the more traditional approach, which has several billion years of tradition behind it?  Will they be called bigots?  Will their medical plans cover the quaint idea of childbirth?  Will potential parents be fined for making the wrong choice?  Maybe we'd better talk this out.

July 3, 2017