Justice Anthony Kennedy announced Wednesday that he is retiring from the Supreme Court. The departure gives President Trump the chance to replace the court’s pivotal justice and dramatically shift the court to the right, setting up a bitter partisan showdown on Kennedy’s successor, the Washington Post reports. “It has been the greatest honor and privilege to serve our nation in the federal judiciary for 43 years, 30 of those years on the Supreme Court,” said Kennedy, 81, who is leaving July 31. Kennedy joined the court in 1988 and has been its most important member for a decade. The Californian, who was chosen by President Ronald Reagan, cast the deciding vote on the controversial Citizens United campaign finance decision, the constitutional right to same-sex marriage and the continued viability of affirmative action.
On almost every major issue that has faced the court recently, neither the Democratic-appointed justices nor Kennedy’s fellow Republican-appointed colleagues could prevail without his vote. Chief Justice John Roberts likely will become the central justice on the nine-member court. Roberts, 63, is well to the right of Kennedy. While Senate Democrats lack the numbers to deny the Kennedy seat to whoever Trump chooses, they will ratchet up the stakes of the choice. It will be the first time since Justice Clarence Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall more than 25 years ago that a new justice could radically change the court’s direction. Since then, new members have replaced justices of the same general ideology. Kennedy was chosen after the Senate voted down controversial conservative Judge Robert Bork. Kennedy has voted to uphold Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a woman’s right to choose an abortion, and he wrote the court’s major gay rights decisions. He is further to the right on law-and-order issues than was Justice Antonin Scalia.