Is Justice Kennedy or Justice Thomas really likely to retire this summer?

The question in the title of this post is promoted by this new article in The Hill headlined “Grassley: Another Supreme Court vacancy likely this summer.” Here are the basic details:

Sen. Chuck Grassley is predicting that President Trump will get to nominate a second justice to the Supreme Court as early as this summer.

The Iowa Republican, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said there is a “rumored” upcoming retirement but declined to say which justice he expects to step down. “I would expect a resignation this summer,” Grassley said during a Q&A with the Muscatine Journal in Iowa.

Grassley added that the president’s next Supreme Court nominee would likely come off the list of roughly two dozen names Trump announced before taking over the White House….

Grassley isn’t the first Republican to signal that he thinks a second justice will retire in the near future. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is also on the Judiciary Committee, has repeatedly predicted that he thinks Trump will get to make another nomination as soon as this summer.

“I think we’re likely to see another vacancy potentially as soon as this summer. I think we’ll see another vacancy either this summer or next summer,” Cruz told the Chris Saucedo Show last week.

I am inclined to guess that Justice Thomas is the most likely current justice to be eager to get out of DC and give Prez Trump another quick opportunity to shape the direction of the Court, and I also think he is the justice most likely to be, perhaps indirectly, “leaking” his plans to important Senators like Cruz and Grassley. But maybe, after completing his 30th Term on the Court, Justice Kennedy is ready to move on. Time will tell, and a lot of sentencing jurisprudence could be impacted either way.