Just a few months ago, the New York Times published an editorial literally pleading with eighty-one-year-old Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy not to retire. Flattering him as the Court’s “most powerful member” whose vote, “more than that of any other justice, has delivered landmark legal victories for Americans,” the Times appealed to Kennedy to consider both his legacy and the future of the Court itself, and deny Trump another Supreme Court appointment.

“We can’t know what is in your heart, Your Honor, but we do know what your departure right now would mean for the court, and for the nation,” wrote the board. “It would not be good.”

It should have worked. After all, as the Times wrote in 1987 when he was first nominated, Kennedy isn’t some kind of right-wing ideologue; he could be reasoned with! He was “quiet,” “pragmatic,” and “open to persuasion.”