Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced Wednesday that the is retiring from the Supreme Court. This will allow President Trump a chance to replace the court’s pivotal justice moving the institution to the right.
On June 27, 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, effective July 31. The 81-year old senior associate Justice informed the White House of his intention to step down.
Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President Ronald Reagan nominated Kennedy to the Supreme Court in 1987, and Kennedy was sworn in on February 18, 1988. Since the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor in 2006, he has been the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court‘s 5–4 decisions.[1][2][3][4]
Born in Sacramento, California, Kennedy took over his father’s legal practice in Sacramento after graduating from Harvard Law School. In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed Kennedy to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In November 1987, after two previous attempts at nominating a successor to Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., President Reagan nominated Kennedy to the Supreme Court. Kennedy won unanimous confirmation from the United States Senate in February 1988. Kennedy became the most senior Associate Justice of the Court following the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016.[5]
He has authored the majority opinion in several important cases, including Boumediene v. Bush and Citizens United v. FEC. Kennedy wrote in part the majority opinions in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. He is also notable for his majority opinions in each of the Court’s landmark gay rights cases: Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges. Wikipedia
President Trump stated today: We’ll begin our search for Justice Kennedy’s replacement ‘immediately”