Saying he loved the good old days when you would take people out on the stretchers, if you get in trouble for beating somebody up, im going to pay the legal fees. Can you imagine it . I dont agree with the way maxine phrased all that thats a whole different conversation about civil discourse. What a precious giant mammoth snowflake you must be if you sit there cheering frosty the snowflake. While donald trump is talking about beating people up and he loves it, thats the good old days, take em out on a stretcher and Maxine Waters says what she says and suddenly hes like, oh, my god. Maxine waters a i peeled to precedent. Saying well, donald trump said this as well. And am i to be condemned . We dont want to play that game. With us we have White House Reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire. Jonathan and i would like everybody to know that the red sox are back in first place. Yup. It was a little hairy last night. No matter what happens tonight, well have at least a share of first place going into the series with the yankees this weekend. Associate editor commentary magazine noah rothman is with us, former trishlry official and morning joe economic analyst, steven rattner. Come on matts im a red sox fan, too. Theres 162 games. I love that field. Im in. Steve has harley charts and of course next to him is the soul of America Pulitzer prizewinning historian jon meachum. The soul of america battle for our better angels. The soul of america and the bard of belle meade. Do they have belle meade whiskey in. They do. I drink iced tea its a beautiful bottle. Ill put it by my side with my paisley smoking jacket. Ive got some cigares if you want those, too. Handrolled in belle meade, the country club. Lets move on to justice in america. Democracy in action. Also with us, Nbc News National Political reporter Heidi Przybilla and nbc Supreme Court contributor and cofounder of scotusblog tom goldstein. Why do we have him on . Hey, tom, i hope you brought your sudoku charts. Keep your mind sharp while we talk about baseball. There might be a reason hes in we have a lot to get to, President Trump and Vladimir Putin preparing to meet next month in person. What could go wrong . Plus the president triples down on his attacks against harleydavidson. What he said yesterday about the iconic company. But we start with the political battle lines already being drawn over the replacement for Supreme CourtJustice Anthony kennedy. Who has announced he is retiring. Justice kennedy made that announcement yesterday saying he will step down at the end of the month. His decision paving the way for the most significant change in the high courts makeup in a half century. The move will allow President Trump the chance to shape the court into a solidly conservative one for years, if not generations to come. Despite his refusal to consider president obamas nomination of judge merritt garland to replayed the justice antenen scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said he expects the process to Begin ReplacingJustice Kennedy as soon as possible. We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedys successor this fall. Its imperative that the president s nominee be considered fairly and not subjected to personal attacks. All right. So jon meachum, yesterday there were several people who were shocked at this news. And quite a few people actually with blue check marks by their name. Saying this was the bleakest moment in their lives and they didnt know how they were going to move forward with it. There are many things that donald trump does that we criticize and talk about cause concern. Cause great concern. And violations of constitutional norms. Just for our friends that are suggesting the same here. When you elect president s, this is what happens. And when Hillary Clinton didnt visit wisconsin and didnt visit michigan enough and when we saw a young woman yesterday with a Campaign Message that was more inspiring in three minutes than what Hillary Clinton gave us in two years, they can complain about internet this and that and the press did this and they should have done that. The fact is hillary never had a message. She ran a horrible campaign. And this is just, this is a consequence of it. Is it not . I mean what donald trump did yesterday is what president s do. And by the way, if Mitch Mcconnell subverted what should be senates constitutional, the norms of checks and balances, well then damn it, democrats can try to do the same thing. Yesterday was delivery day for a lot of republicans. And the republicans i talked to who voted for trump unhappily, because they were for jeb intellectually maybe they were for rubio, by the end they were for kasich. But when it came down to it, they voted for donald trump and he is president , not least because, not only because, but not least because people, those people wanted fewer taxes and more justices. Thats what this was about. And i will say it was, as someone, noah, that was very critical of george w. Bush, when george w. Bush left, i was bitterly disappointed the way he spent money. The way he ran up deficits, the way he ran up the debt, the 7 trillion medicare expansion that he didnt pay for. Reckless wars. But at the end, i would always have to say, but he gave conservatives two justices. And he gave america a big tax cut. And i would say that about george w. Bush, a lot of people that voted for donald trump now were probably saying the same thing about him. Yeah, to jons point who voted for justices, youre very happy with how this term went for conservative causes, conservative intellectual philosophies, legal philosophies, it was a good term. And the extent to which they have another opportunity to put another conservative justice on the court will only solidify that. Democrats appear to know that the left is very outraged over this. Theyre in an existential crisis. They say we need to do everything we can. Ejdionne has a piece in the Washington Post do everything we possibly can. Missing from that is what were supposed to do. Ominously says civility might be an obstacle to that imperative. But to the extent that theres any governmental institution, any mechanism that they can appeal to to stop this it doesnt exist, democrats made their bed in 2013, it was completed in 2017, end of story. It seems to me if theyre going to do anything, theyre going to have to look at a few of the republicans, jonathan, who will be very uncomfortable casting their vote to support a nominee that will end roe v. Wade with Susan Collins, with Lisa Murkowsky, you have two republicans right there how do you hold joe manchin, how do you hold Heidi Heitkamp. If roe v. Wade does become the lit us test for this justice. The i cover the Trump Campaign and night after night you talk to people who were suggesting they were almost holding their nose to vote for the president , they hoped they would get a justice delivered in return. This is the culmination of a longterm republican strategy to focus on the courts. You know they obviously elevated such importance, theyre always important. We saw in the case in 2000 that delivered george w. Bush to the white house, it was crystallized for a lot of people what the courts matter and youve seen Mitch Mcconnell, the decision he made in 2016 to not bring merritt garland for a vote. Decided this is a moment where this could give republicans a chance to reshape the court for decades. And give it a conservative bu bulwark against rising democratic changes that would seem to favor democrats. The country is becoming more urban and less white this is a moment where republicans are going to install through donald trump, an imperfect message for a lot of republican values, at least two justices. You can cut the perhaps. Jon, i was reading a new yorker article called mcpolitics. And in it, the journalist started with a story of boss in West Virginia, asking the kennedys asking how much money do you need to help swing, to help swing West Virginia for kennedy. He said i was looking at about 35. Thinking 3500. Thats a heck of a payday. The kennedys come with a briefcase of 35,000, hand it to him and he opens it up and says okay, im good. Im not saying thats how politics should be. The point was, yous used to be able to go to party bosses and say how do we win these states . Now its not won locally, whether by that way or knocking on doors. Now its, its always a National Referendum on something. And courts are probably the, one of the biggest ways conservatives, especially, have turned it from all politics is local, to a mcpolitics enterprise. A franchise politics. There were two moments that really made that happen in the postwar era. Obviously brown, which radicalized the white right in the south. And the other was the 62 School Prayer decision. Im sure you had people in pensacola, that would tell you it that the beginning of the end of america fluoride. Was 1962. Okay, okay, prayer in school. But fluoride was a close second. It was on those posters. By the way, theres some people that dont know that. That used to be the great john birch conspiracy, they were putting fluoride in your water and it was going to mess up your brain. The Anthony Kennedy era began with partisan hysteria. Because ted kennedy went to the floor of the senate gave a speech that in robert borks america there were segregated lunch counters and backalley abortions. If you ask conservatives where did the hyperpartisan era begin, they would say it was ted kennedy. And democrats say it was newt gingrich. I still remember where i was when i heard ted kennedys speech. And it was an offensive speech. It was so over the top. It was so hateful. And it did. It elevated Supreme Court picks on to a level they had never been elevated to before. And democrats followed up, then going after Clarence Thomas. And then we were off to the races. So kennedy of course was a deciding swing vote on the court when he voted with the four conservative justices, the court upheld the trump travel ban, gutted the Voting Rights act and allowed corporate money in politics. And he voted with progressives, also his 2015 decision striking down state bans against samesex marriage. So, tom, what are the areas that we should expect to see the biggest shift . I read there were 50 51 decisions where kennedy went with a liberal majority where you had the chief justice writing a dissent. Talk about those cases. Also tell me, is it just my imagination, or over the past three terms has Anthony Kennedy not become a more reliably conservative vote . So you know morning joe on the Supreme Court is where all hope goes to zi when it comes to the future of the Supreme Court. Die. The big issues that Americans Care about, abortion, Justice Kennedy being the fifth vote to uphold the core of roe versus wade. Affirmative action is probably on the chopping block right now. We have areas of Campaign Finance law, where the conservatives could go still further in limiting, eliminating restrictions on contributions. Justice kennedy being a critical vote when it comes to samesex marriage for example. So even though this term he voted in 14 Different Cases with the conservatives to provide a fifth vote, and zero cases with the liberals, he still over the course of years, was essential on a number of these issues. And you could really expect all of those to head in the opposite direction. Steve rattner . So, tom, Steve Rattner, on issues like samesex marriage and roe v. Wade which have become so kind of institutionalized in the fabric of our society at this point, do you really imagine that even if trump picks what at least some of us fear he might do, that it would literally overturn roe v. Wade or overturn same sex marriage, or more chipping away the rights that gays and women got under those decisions. When it comes to gay rights, i would say samesex is institutionali institutionalized. I but when it comes to employment discrimination, a conservative majority would head back in the opposite direction, in expanding rights for gay americans or samesex couples. When it comes it abortion, i think that judicial conservatives have been relatively savvy in saying we dont need to see roe versus wade overruled. But they can still cut it back a lot and send a signal to the states they can adopt longer waiting periods, more restrictions on the kind of facilities that can offer Abortion Services so as a practical matter, i would say the abortion right is going to get narrowed probably a lot. Tom, lets talk about the chief justice john roberts, who shocked a lot of people when he, when he sided with the white house on the Affordable Care act, on obamacare, he did so, i think most observers believe, because he believed in this institution, he saw himself not only as a conservative jurist, but also as the protector of institutions. Unlike Justice Thomas, who believes that you look at every case anew. You have john roberts looking at the institution. Do you suspect that we will see a different Justice Roberts . Not a more liberal Justice Roberts, not even a more moderate Justice Roberts, but a Justice Roberts that will slow the court down if for some reason hes staring at a 54 decision that would overturn roe v. Wade . I would think when it comes to something as significant as roe, he is as exactly as you describe kind of an institutionalist. On the other hand, there are a lot of things that remain on the agenda of judicial conservatives that he is willing to take significant steps on, so yesterday we got the Union Fees Decision in which he was part of a fivemember majority overturning a decadeslong precedent saying Public Employees union can collect fees from nonmembers to engage in collective bargaining on their behalf. Thats one of a dozen areas of the law where the chief just sis part of this movement. Hes a Reagan Administration, grew up in that context, is a believer that the court has been too far to the left. And so he still has a way to take the court, i think. Heidi, lets talk about whoever donald trump nominates. Obviously roe is going to be at the center of this. Because you can go back 30, 40 years and it was either Sandra Day Oconnor or Justice Kennedy that was continuing to protect roe, as a legal precedent. Im wondering, what have you heard . What do you expect from Lisa Murkowsky, from Susan Collins . From any other republicans that may hold up a nomination, that could overturn roe . And then what do we expect from joe manchin on the other side, and Heidi Heitkamp and senator donly from indiana. Are they going to, because they want to get reelected, are they going to blindly follow wherever trumps nominee takes them . Well that is where all of the focus is going to be, joe. If you look at the democratic messaging that came out last night, they made it very clear the two things that theyre going to focus on with any nominee are the two things that trump quite frankly said would be litmus tests which are the overturning of roe and also the aca. Hes actually said that. He would choose, he said that in the past he would choose justice who is support these things. In the confirmation hearings, they will nail whoever the nominee is, on these points. Now the two women republicans, yes, theres going to be a lot of focus on them. A lot of focus on the democrats. But i think Lisa Murkowsky and Susan Collins are going to come under so much pressure by Womens Health advocates and they have shown in the past, now i know you know, john mccain got all of the attention for torpedoing the repeal of the skinny repeal obamacare repeal. But who else voted against it . Lisa murkowsky and Susan Collins. And they did it in part on concern about Womens Health issues. So there will be a lot of attention paid to those two. Once we know who the nominee is. And then secondly, even before that, i think were going to look at heitkamp, donnelly and manchin to see if there are any early cracks. Last night you could see how trump is starting to gin this up, going to north dakota and saying Heidi Heitkamp saying she wont vote for anybody i nominate. Even though she voted for gorsuch. What a tough decision for her, for manchin and for donnelly. As theyre staring at an election. I know democrats will try to push, push t