Can a Supreme Ce ourt Justice rescind his/her resignation?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I understand the statement, but everyone just keeps making this type of statement, like it was handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai. You may be right, but I’m not sure it’s been proven.

What is an “intent of resignation”? If I tell my boss that probably around the first of the year I’m going to retire and spend more time with the family, then I agree that is nothing firm that he should rely upon. We will have another conversation, probably late October, to see where I am at with this thought. It is a courtesy that I am extending that I did not have to do.

If I tell him that I am quitting at the end of this month, then that is more definite and more like a resignation and not just an intent to resign. It was still a courtesy to give him notice, but the period of time is much more firm.

To take your position to the extreme example, could I say that I quit, just as soon as I get my stuff out of my desk, but then, three days later, noticing that I had left a dime in the upper right hand drawer, rescind the resignation as the condition precedent had not been satisfied?

42

The point that you keep missing is that this is irrelevant to the question of Kennedy rescinding his resignation. The employment contract is the United States Constitution. It specifies the sole remedy if a Justice keeps showing up for work who Congress thinks shouldn’t be there: impeachment. Any other solution would be obviously unconstitutional and thus fail to be enforceable.

I guess it would be similar to if you had an employment contract that said “Employee gets to hold this job forever unless he dies or the board of directors holds a vote to remove him for poor behavior.” If you said you were going to resign and then said “You know what, I’ll stick around” prior to that date, it would be up to the board to decide if your behavior was worthy of a vote and to get a majority to agree to fire you. But even that contract could then be taken to court and argued about if it fits contract/employment laws. In Kennedy’s case, it’s hard to argue that the Constitution violates US law.