Rumors have been piling up around the nation’s capital that president Trump will be able to nominate another Supreme Court vacancy this year.

Back in February, Sen. Ted Cruz said the “odds are very good” that at least one justice would be retiring from the bench.

Many are starting to assume that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who will be 81 this summer, is eyeing retirement. As such, it would give Trump the opportunity to nominate another phenomenal, and much younger, conservative judge to sit on the bench for decades.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stirred the pot this week when he indicated he thinks the rumors may be true.

“I would expect a resignation this summer,” he said Tuesday at an event in Muscatine, Iowa.

Grassley wouldn’t mention any names in particular as far as which justice may be retiring, but he did mention where his successor would come from.

A person would likely be nominated from the same list from which recently appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch was chosen, Grassley said, most of whom he said are well-qualified.

“I don’t know about racial and ethnic divisions, but there’s some very good females on there that would make good Supreme Court Justices as well,” he said.

Kennedy is the second oldest justice serving on the bench, and he may be eyeing his opportunity to step down with Republicans controlling both Congress and the White House.

It was Justice Kennedy who swore in judge Neil Gorsuch last week as the court’s newest associate justice.

If the rumors are true and Trump is able to nominate at least one more justice to the Supreme Court, not only would that be a very big win for his administration, it would also be huge in the eyes of Republicans and the American people.

Gorsuch was a home-run. Let’s see if Trump can go two for two.