"Say Hello To Your Boy"

Why, exactly, did Justice Kennedy decide to announce his retirement this week? Talking Points Memo, referring to an article at the New York Times, lays out an interesting theory about what they call the White House's "stick and carrot tactics to nab Kennedy's seat:"

The White House has been working to prod Justice Anthony Kennedy out of his Supreme Court seat for months, giving his clerks plum judgeships, developing personal relationships, and striking the fear of a Democratic Senate into him, according to a Thursday New York Times report.

President Donald Trump has been assiduously appointing Kennedy clerks to federal appeals courts, floating their names for Supreme Court vacancies, and following through to put one on the bench: Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Trump is reportedly close to Kennedy, often praising him while criticizing his more conservative peers, and Ivanka Trump has visited the Supreme Court with her daughter at Kennedy’s invitation.

Trump allies have reportedly been lobbying Kennedy for months, telling him that getting a strict constructionist on the bench would be well-nigh impossible with a Democratic Senate.

Kennedy’s retirement is a significant win for Trump, who will now get another chance to altar the highest court, this time in an even more dramatic way as he’ll likely pick a staunch conservative without Kennedy’s occasional swing on social issues.

More interestingly, apparently Donald Trump the real estate developer had a lucrative business relationship with Justice Kennedy's son. Again from the Times, quoted by TPM in a second post: 

But [Trump and Justice Kennedy] had a connection, one Mr. Trump was quick to note in the moments after his first address to Congress in February 2017. As he made his way out of the chamber, Mr. Trump paused to chat with the justice.

“Say hello to your boy,” Mr. Trump said. “Special guy.”

Mr. Trump was apparently referring to Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin. The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, eventually rising to become the bank’s global head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer, according to two people with knowledge of his role.

During Mr. Kennedy’s tenure, Deutsche Bank became Mr. Trump’s most important lender, dispensing well over $1 billion in loans to him for the renovation and construction of skyscrapers in New York and Chicago at a time other mainstream banks were wary of doing business with him because of his troubled business history. (Read the TPM article here.)