Kavanaugh confirmed
The US Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, giving the Supreme Court a clear conservative majority for potentially decades to come.
The brutal confirmation battle has been partisan politics at its worse. I’m glad the NZ judiciary isn’t politicized to this degree and that judicial appointments aren’t subject to parliamentary votes. Otherwise we might end up similar.
The ages of the nine Supreme Court Justices are:
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85
- Stephen Breyer, 80
- Clarence Thomas, 70
- Samuel Alito, 68
- Sonia Sotomayor, 64
- John Roberts, 63
- Elena Kagan, 58
- Brett Kavanaugh, 53
- Neil Gorsuch, 51
The average age a Supreme Court Justice retires is 83, so on the conservative side Justice Thomas is the only likely retirement in the next 15 years.