United States
Supreme Court justices can only be replaced if they retire, die, or are impeached.
So Slate took a look at which justice is most likely to die by 2017 — the end of President
Slate used data from the Centers for Disease Control to put together rough odds for different
But the publication cautions that its death calculator assumes each justice has a normal life expectancy for his or her sex and race.
So, who is most likely to die next? Well, Justice Anthony Kennedy is the most likely to die followed by
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Justice Anthony Kennedy, 76, has a 19 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Antonin Scalia, 76, has an 18.38 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, has a 17.77 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Stephen Breyer, 74, has a 14.7 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Clarence Thomas, 64, has a 10.81 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Samuel Alito, 62, has a 5.42 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Chief Justice John Roberts, 57, has a 3.74 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 58, has a 1.77 percent chance of dying by 2017.
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Justice Elena Kagan, 52, has a 1.61 percent chance of dying by 2017.
As the ABA Journal points out, there is a 64 percent chance at least one justice will die by the time Obama leaves office.
And based on Slate's calculator, it looks like Kennedy could be that justice.
He's 76 years old and while that makes him younger than Ginsburg, who's a cancer survivor, women tend to live longer than men.
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