Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy ’s retirement announcement was not met well by Democrats. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images exclusive audio ‘Oh, my God’: DNC members react in horror to Kennedy retirement

News of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement was met with groans — and a cry of “Oh, my God” — as Democratic National Committee members first learned of the development during a meeting Wednesday.

Nearly an hour into a conference call meeting of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, a member interjected that “Justice Anthony Kennedy has just announced that he’s retiring.”


“Ohh,” and “Oh, my God,” could be heard on the line as members processed the news.

One participant said of Kennedy, “Not that he’s done us any good on these recent decisions, but he was the one occasionally persuadable.”

A woman added, “This is not good news."

While the DNC committee was meeting to discuss the influence of superdelegates in the presidential nominating process, the weight of the Supreme Court hung heavily over the proceedings.

Earlier in the call — before Kennedy’s announcement — DNC Chairman Tom Perez called the high court’s ruling Wednesday that public-sector unions may not charge non-members mandatory fees “another decision that, in my judgment, will live in infamy.”

“This is what Neil Gorsuch’s nomination was about,” Perez said. “They stole a fifth seat, and their goal was to take aim at the heart of our values — in this case, the right to organize a union.”

Lamenting the court’s recent decisions, Perez added, “The rule of law has been replaced by the rule of Trump.”

