Mr Justice Kennedy

Soon the last day of the Supreme Court term will arrive, a day when the most controversial rulings are often delivered, soon after the bench has left for summer retreats.  This year, the focus is on the 81 year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy who may well resign from the Court.

Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor were swing votes in many 5–4 and 6–3 decisions on the Rehnquist and Roberts courts. Kennedy is not easily pigeonholed ideologically. He has tended to look at cases individually instead of deciding them on the basis of a rigid ideology. As Kennedy once said at a reunion of his law clerks, "We always tried to get it right."

Kennedy has made rulings on numerous issues affecting life in America. Examples include Jurisprudence, particularly the 14^th Amendment and due process. On abortion, he supported the Planned Parenthood decision to uphold Roe v Wade. On gay rights and homosexuality, his concept of liberty included protections for sexual orientation. On capital punishment, he sided with those who found that the execution of the mentally ill and those under 18 at the time of the crime was unconstitutional.

On gun control, he joined the majority in District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. At issue was whether Washington, D.C.'s ban violated the right to "keep and bear arms" by preventing individuals from having guns in their homes. On Super-PACS, Justice Kennedy agreed with the majority opinion in Citizens United: the decision was that prohibition of all independent expenditures by corporations and unions violated the First Amendment's protection of free speech. This decision remains hotly disputed. It opened the door for corporations to contribute unlimited sums to political campaigns.

After 2005, when Sandra Day O'Connor, who had previously been known as the court's "swing vote", retired, Kennedy earned the title for himself. On the Roberts Court, Kennedy has often decided the outcome of cases. Hence the fear that Kennedy will resign. He has often voiced his desire to leave Washington and get a life. Of course, he couched his statements in obscure terms. Maybe the surprise will be no resignation.

Why is one man’s departure from the nine seat bench of concern? Mr Trump is showing signs of re-defining the Constitution. For example, he wants the Senate’s right of filibuster terminated. This is a matter for the Senate, not the Chief Executive. Recently, he has both spoken and tweeted about the right of a President to pardon himself. Evidently, some constitutional lawyers support the view. As a lawyer myself, I question how anyone can be judge and jury in his own trial. But if issues like these are tested in the Courts, an independent Supreme Court bench will be bound to hear the case eventually.

In 1974, when the Nixon Tapes case reached the Supreme Court, Justice Rehnquist recused himself as he was a Nixon appointee. If Kennedy resigns, will his replacement on the Court be as honourable? Furthermore, other elderly and Democratic-leaning justices may pass away soon, leaving more vacancies for Trump to fill, probably with deeply conservative, Republican white men.

The Federalist Papers, a record of the Constitutional Conference in 1787, reports of discussions about appointing a king to reign the new nation. The delegates gave short shrift to the notion. Yet America is now looking at a Commander-in-Chief who is showing signs of dictatorial tendencies. The last bastion to defend the Republic against tyranny is the Supreme Court. It is essential that Trump is not allowed to contaminate the Court by filling it with men in his own image. Mind you, if he does, he cannot be certain they will do his bidding.