If this report by Paul Bedard from the right-wing Washington Examiner is true, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas could decide to retire after this Presidential Election. Thomas is well-known for his sexual harassment of Anita Hill and his right-wing activist rulings over the years on the bench.
WashEx’s Bedard:
Justice Clarence Thomas, a reliable conservative vote on the Supreme Court, is mulling retirement after the presidential election, according to court watchers.
[...]
His retirement would have a substantial impact on control of the court. The next president is expected to immediately replace the seat opened by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, providing a one-vote edge in the court that is currently divided 4-4.
Should Thomas leave, that slight majority would continue if Donald Trump becomes president. If it's Hillary Clinton, then she would get the chance to flip two Republican seats, giving the liberals a 6-3 majority.
David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement:
It could be true, it could be false, but the implications of course are tremendous. Assuming Republicans in the Senate successfully keeps their vow to not confirm any SCOTUS justice nominated by President Obama, and wait until the next president takes office, this would mean the next president would automatically nominate not one but two justices to the nation's top court, controlling its destiny for decades.
The fact that Antonin Scalia died and Thomas possibly stepping down is further proof that Americans need to elect Hillary Clinton as our President this November and Democrats to take back the Senate, because if she is elected and Dems regain the Senate, then we’ll have a 6-3 liberal majority at SCOTUS. However, if Donald Trump (aka the Orange Madman) is elected, the SCOTUS likely stays at a 5-4 conservative majority (assuming that Trump gets to pick his own replacements for Scalia and Thomas). There is also the possibility that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, and/or Stephen Breyer could step down or die within the next few years, making this election a very important one regarding the balance of the Supreme Court.