BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Dear Justice Anthony Kennedy,
I would like to start with congratulatory wishes on your forthcoming 81st birthday.
As someone who has almost a decade and a half on you, I can tell you this: It may well be that the best part of your career has just begun. As a nonagenarian who has just completed the most prolific, productive five years of my life, I feel it incumbent upon me to urge a hearty octogenarian such as yourself not to put your feet up on the ottoman just yet. You have important and fulfilling work ahead of you.
When I turned 81, I had finished "Oceans Eleven" and was gearing up for "Oceans Twelve" while also writing another book, which led me to a cross-country book tour.
I know what it means to be your age. I know the problems that come with the journey. But these are not ordinary times, and you, sir, are anything but an ordinary man.
The country needs justices like you who decide each case with fairness and humanity, and whose allegiance is to the Constitution of the United States of America, not to a party line. You have always voted your conscience, and defended the rights and liberties of all our citizens.
I'm sure you've considered the various options, as we all do when we reach a certain age. After all, although our lives are different, I'm sure there are similarities. I get up in the morning, and if I'm not in the obits, I eat breakfast. You get up, meet with your clerks and engage with them in spirited discussion about the constitutional ramifications of the important cases at hand. I engage in spirited discussion with my publisher about the release order of my next three books.
You have lunch and I have lunch. You return to your chambers and I to my desk. At day's end, you go home to ponder the important decisions you will be making tomorrow. I go downstairs and join my friend Mel in front of the television, and we ponder out loud how many steps Vanna White will take when walking over to the letter board tonight after leaving Pat Sajak's side. (F.Y.I., it is usually six, sometimes seven, rarely eight, but never nine.)
Imagine if you retired from the bench. What would your days be like? Here's a scenario: You revisit your carefree years, rent a red Volkswagen and travel through Europe, stopping in Paris for coffee and a croissant on the Champs-Élysées, then on to the Amalfi coast, where you'll sail to the waterfalls of Marmorata and the Emerald Grotto.
How would you feel, while reading your newspaper, seeing a headline that read "Roe v. Wade Overturned"? Do you see how this could ruin a good meal? A good life? A great country?
I believe I've made my case. It's now 1 a.m., and I am going upstairs to my computer to tweet out my thought of the day, because I can. I have the freedom to do that because of people like you who are committed to protecting our liberties and our Constitution.
I thank you, as all our fellow citizens will.
Respectfully,
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner is a director, writer, producer and actor whose most recent credits include the HBO documentary "If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast" and the book "Too Busy to Die." This opinion appeared in The New York Times on July 8, 2017.
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July 9, 2017.
Addendum. One American treasure writes to another. Perhaps we all should too. Justice Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court of the United States, 1 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20543