VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,007 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2018

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WASHINGTON — Justice An-thony M. Kennedy announced onWednesday that he would retirethis summer, setting in motion afurious fight over the future of theSupreme Court and giving Presi-dent Trump the chance to put aconservative stamp on the Ameri-can legal system for generations.

Justice Kennedy, 81, has been acritical swing vote on the sharplypolarized court for nearly threedecades as he embraced liberalviews on gay rights, abortion andthe death penalty but helped con-servatives trim voting rights,block gun control measures andunleash campaign spending bycorporations.

His replacement by a conserva-tive justice — something Mr.Trump has vowed to his support-ers — could imperil a variety oflandmark Supreme Court prece-dents on social issues where Jus-tice Kennedy frequently sidedwith his liberal colleagues, partic-ularly on abortion.

Mr. Trump and his Republicanallies have hoped for months thatJustice Kennedy might retire,clearing a way for a new, moreconservative jurist before Demo-crats had an opportunity to cap-ture the Senate and block futureRepublican nominees. In contrastto his frequent criticisms of ChiefJustice John G. Roberts Jr., a gen-

erally reliable conservative, Mr.Trump has frequently heapedpraise on Justice Kennedy andeven has suggested that he mightnominate one of his former clerksto the bench — subtle nudges thepresident hoped would make Jus-tice Kennedy more comfortablewith the idea of stepping down.

Justice Kennedy’s departurecould leave Chief Justice Roberts,who was appointed by George W.Bush, as the decisive vote on acourt whose other justices maysoon include four committed liber-als and four equally committedconservatives.

The court’s term that just endedoffered a preview of what such alineup might mean: With JusticeKennedy mostly siding with con-servatives this year, the court en-dorsed Mr. Trump’s power overimmigration, dealt a blow to laborunions and backed a Republicanpurge of voter rolls in Ohio.

Justice Kennedy hand-deliv-ered a short letter of resignation toMr. Trump on Wednesday after-noon, shortly after a half-hourmeeting at the White House,where the president called him ajurist with “tremendous visionand tremendous heart.”

“Please permit me by this letterto express my profound gratitudefor having had the privilege to

TRUMP SET TO TILT COURT AS KENNEDY RETIRESA Political Clash Is Expected After a

Crucial Swing Vote Departs

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

The president praised Anthony M. Kennedy’s “tremendous vision and tremendous heart.”ERIC THAYER/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A16

WASHINGTON — The Su-preme Court dealt a major blow onWednesday to organized labor. Bya 5-to-4 vote, with the more con-servative justices in the majority,the court ruled that governmentworkers who choose not to join un-ions may not be required to helppay for collective bargaining.

Forcing those workers to fi-nance union activity violated theFirst Amendment, Justice SamuelA. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority.“We conclude that this arrange-ment violates the free speechrights of nonmembers by compel-ling them to subsidize privatespeech on matters of substantialpublic concern,” he wrote.

The ruling means that public-sector unions across the nation,already under political pressure,could lose tens of millions of dol-lars and see their effectiveness di-minished.

“We recognize that the loss ofpayments from nonmembers maycause unions to experience un-pleasant transition costs in theshort term, and may require un-ions to make adjustments in orderto attract and retain members,”Justice Alito wrote. “But we mustweigh these disadvantagesagainst the considerable windfallthat unions have received” overthe years.

Chief Justice John G. RobertsJr. and Justices Anthony M. Ken-nedy, Clarence Thomas and NeilM. Gorsuch joined the majorityopinion, which overruled a four-decade-old precedent.

Justice Elena Kagan summa-rized her dissent from the bench, asign of profound disagreement.

“There is no sugarcoating to-day’s opinion,” she wrote. “Themajority overthrows a decisionentrenched in this nation’s law —and in its economic life — for over40 years.”

“As a result,” she wrote, “it pre-vents the American people, actingthrough their state and local offi-cials, from making importantchoices about workplace govern-ance. And it does so by weaponiz-ing the First Amendment, in a waythat unleashes judges, now and inthe future, to intervene in eco-nomic and regulatory policy.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg,Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia So-tomayor joined the dissent.

The majority based its ruling onthe First Amendment, saying thatrequiring payments to unions thatnegotiate with the governmentforces workers to endorse poli-

Ruling on CollectiveBargaining Fees

Hurts Unions

By ADAM LIPTAK

Continued on Page A19

At the Parkchester apartmentsin the Bronx, neighbors heard thenews from a maintenanceworker: The woman down the hallhad just won a primary and wasprobably headed for Congress. Ata popular restaurant in UnionSquare in Manhattan, workersstruggled to comprehend that theyoung politician whose face wasall over TV really was the samewoman who had tended bar until afew months ago.

And on the streets of MidtownManhattan Wednesday morning,the candidate herself was tryingto make sense of it all. AlexandriaOcasio-Cortez stood outsideRockefeller Center after appear-ing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,”juggling phone calls and live TVinterviews and the well-wishes ofdoormen and office workers ontheir coffee breaks.

“I’m used to people kind of

knowing me in the community,”said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 28. But tohave a stream of random peoplewalk up and ask to take a selfiewith her? “Insane.”

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, whose ré-sumé up to now included waitress,children’s-book publisher, com-munity activist, member of theDemocratic Socialists of America

An Instant Political SuperstarIs Born in a New York Primary

This article is by Andy Newman,Vivian Wang and Luis Ferré-Sadurní.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rid-ing to meet with reporters.

ANNIE TRITT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A21

WASHINGTON — Justice An-thony M. Kennedy has served formore than 30 years under twochief justices: William H. Rehn-quist and John G. Roberts Jr.Courts are by tradition named forthe chief justice. Since 2005, it hasbeen the Roberts court.

But if influence were the decid-ing factor, it would be more accu-rate to speak of the period since1988 as the Kennedy court.

Justice Kennedy has occupied aplace at the court’s ideologicalcenter for his entire tenure,though he shared the middleground with Justice Sandra DayO’Connor for most of his first twodecades. On her retirement in2006, his vote became the undis-puted crucial one in most of thecourt’s closely divided cases.

There have been about 51 deci-

sions in which Justice Kennedyjoined a liberal majority in aclosely divided case, while ChiefJustice Roberts dissented. All ofthose precedents could be in jeop-ardy, said Lee Epstein, a law pro-fessor and political scientist atWashington University in St. Lou-is.

To be sure, Justice Kennedy of-ten voted with the court’s conser-vatives. He wrote the majorityopinion in Citizens United, whichallowed unlimited campaignspending by corporations and un-ions, and he joined the majority inBush v. Gore, which handed the2000 presidential election toGeorge W. Bush. Justice Kennedyalso voted with the court’s conser-vatives in cases on the SecondAmendment and voting rights.

This Was the Kennedy Court,In His Influence if Not in Title

By ADAM LIPTAK

Continued on Page A16

LAMPEDUSA, Italy — On thebeaches of Greece, thousands ofmigrants landed every day. In theports of Italy, thousands landedevery week. Across the borders ofGermany, Austria and Hungary,hundreds of thousands passed ev-ery month.

But that was in 2015.Three years after the peak of

Europe’s migration crisis, Greekbeaches are comparatively calm.Since last August, the ports of Sici-ly have been fairly empty. Andhere on the remote island ofLampedusa — the southernmostpoint of Italy and once the frontline of the crisis — the migrant de-tention center has been silent for

long stretches. Visitors to thecamp on Monday could hear onlythe sound of bird song.

“It’s the quietest it’s been since2011,” said the island’s mayor, Sal-vatore Martello. “The number ofarrivals has dramatically re-duced.”

It is the paradox of Europe’s mi-gration crisis: The actual numberof arriving migrants is back to its

pre-2015 level, even as the politicsof migration continue to shake theContinent. On Thursday, leadersof the European Union are gather-ing in Brussels for a fraught meet-ing on migration that could hastenthe political demise of the Germanchancellor, Angela Merkel, andunravel the bloc’s efforts to form acoherent migration policy.

Migration to Europe Is Plunging. The Far Right Still Sees a Crisis.By PATRICK KINGSLEY

A Budapest train station that was crowded by migrants in 2015, left, is quieter now. But Hungary’s leader has criticized an “invasion.”MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES AKOS STILLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump’s time in office has beentumultuous, his term dogged bythe special counsel investigation,his major legislative achieve-ments few and his politicalprospects clouded by thechances of a Democratic Partymidterm wave.

But no matter what else hap-pens in the Trump presidency,the retirement of Justice Antho-ny M. Kennedy, the SupremeCourt’s swing voter, set up Mr.Trump to cement a lasting lega-cy. Given a second SupremeCourt vacancy to fill, he appearslikely to go down in Americanhistory as an unusually influen-tial president.

As the first Republican presi-dent to get his judicial nomineesconfirmed by a simple majority

vote, thanks to the abolition ofthe Senate filibuster rule, Mr.Trump has already brokenrecords in appointing young andhighly conservative appellatejudges. Now, Mr. Trump cancreate a new majority bloc on theSupreme Court — one that is farmore consistently conservative,and one that can impose itsinfluence over American life longafter his presidency ends onissues as diverse as the envi-ronment and labor or abortionand civil rights.

If Mr. Trump secures thatprospect, he will fulfill the deal

that he struck during the 2016campaign with traditional andmovement conservatives whowere skeptical of his politics andhesitant about supporting hiscandidacy. They feared he wouldpick an idiosyncratic nominee,like a celebrity lawyer he saw ontelevision, rather than an authen-tic conservative.

But Mr. Trump shored upRepublican turnout in the elec-tion by promising to select Su-preme Court nominations from alist of conservative judges. It wasshaped by his top legal adviser,Donald F. McGahn II, now theWhite House counsel, whoworked with advisers like Leon-ard Leo, the executive director ofthe Federalist Society, the con-servative legal movement net-work. Court-focused votershelped deliver Mr. Trump’s nar-row victory over Hillary Clinton,

An Exit That May Echo for GenerationsNEWS ANALYSIS

By CHARLIE SAVAGE Vacancy Hands Trump Chance to Cement aConservative Edge

Continued on Page A19

Getaway drivers and lookouts can beheld as liable in deaths as the killers.California may join some other statesthat have stopped doing so. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-21

Reconsidering the Accomplice

The Russian leader, left, met with JohnR. Bolton, the American national securi-ty adviser, to iron out details. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-12

Trump and Putin Agree to Meet

Joe Jackson, the iron-fisted force behindthe Jackson 5 and the solo careers ofMichael and Janet, was 89. PAGE B18

OBITUARIES B17-18

Patriarch of a Pop DynastyBlockchain, a relatively new kind ofdatabase, has become the trendy solu-tion for storing digital information moresecurely. But the technology can bevery confusing. We help demystify itand show you its potential. (And we’llteach you some cryptoslang!)

SPECIAL SECTION

DealBook

South Korea stunned Germany and itsfans with a 2-0 victory that knocked outthe defending champion. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-16

Germany Exits World CupA fugitive flamingo from Wichita isspied years later in Texas. A fine feath-ered friend hasn’t been found. PAGE A13

Not in Kansas Anymore

As a search for soccer players in a cavereached its fifth day, a governor vowed,“We won’t abandon them.” PAGE A4

Intense Hunt for Lost Thai BoysDespite a 3-0 defeat to Sweden, Mexicoadvanced at the World Cup when Ger-many was eliminated. PAGE B9

Mexico Loses, but All Isn’t LostHundreds gathered for the funeral ofLesandro Guzman-Feliz, whose fatalstabbing was caught on video. PAGE A23

NEW YORK A23-25

The Bronx Mourns a Teenager

The bid for Fox’s entertainment assetsrequires Disney to divest 22 regionalsports networks. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

Disney’s Fox Deal Approved

At a Greek resort bearing her name,she says goodbye to the past. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-8

A Lindsay Lohan Club

Karen Korematsu PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Late EditionToday, cloudy to partly sunny, show-ers and thunderstorms early, hu-mid, high 84. Tonight, clear, low 72.Tomorrow, mostly sunny, high 90.Weather map appears on Page A22.

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