Matt Lewis: “Democrats understandably feel cheated and aggrieved. It is one thing not to have Merrick Garland seated, but it’s another to win the popular vote and then watch two conservative Supreme Court justices be put on the Court. If the roles were reversed, I sincerely doubt that McConnell and others would be saying, ‘Well, it’s all about power. and they are playing the game to the best that they are able.'”

“When the ends always justify the means, then the means become more and more egregious in the service of the ends. The most common retort when this is pointed out is: well, what about Robert Bork? And that’s all well and good. Maybe Democrats should rethink the way they handled that nomination.”

“And maybe Harry Reid should rethink why he did away with the filibuster. But at some point, this game of one-upmanship, turned mutually assured destruction, becomes unsustainable. ‘You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think,’ then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned when Reid went nuclear. Well, that works both ways.”

A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that 67% of the American public do not want the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established women’s constitutional right to abortion.”

“The poll finds a slim majority (53%) of Republicans would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, while large majorities of Democrats (81%) and independents (73%) would not. Similar shares of women (68%) and men (65%) want Roe v. Wade to stand, but among women of reproductive age, three-quarters (74%) want Roe v. Wade to stand.”

President Trump plans on announcing his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy before he leaves for the upcoming NATO summit on July 11, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Politico: “No matter whom President Donald Trump picks for the Supreme Court this time around, the nominee is almost certain to come under withering liberal attack as a grave threat to women’s rights. Several conservatives close to the White House, however, say they know just how to blunt that looming assault: Pick a woman for the job.”

“Now that President Trump has the opportunity to appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court, some abortion opponents hope that Roe v. Wade will end up overturned or gutted — and they have already been working towards that moment,” CNN reports.

“Over the past year, state legislatures in Iowa, Louisiana and Mississippi have advanced strict limits on abortion that some lawmakers believe could trigger a successful challenge to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.”

However, leaders of the antiabortion movement tell the Washington Post “that they are in no hurry to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, saying they plan to stick with their long-standing strategy of pushing for incremental restrictions despite the tantalizing prospect of a more conservative Supreme Court.”

“With the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and the likelihood that President Trump will choose a more conservative replacement, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is poised to play a pivotal role on the court he has headed for 13 years,” the Washington Post reports.

“Roberts has been content to play the long game, moving the court to the right with incremental steps. But now, with more conservative colleagues on one side and liberals on the other, Roberts will have the ability to supply the deciding fifth vote and dictate the terms of the deal.”