Anthony Kennedy officially retires Tuesday, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court with just eight justices for the moment as President Donald Trump's nominee Brett Kavanaugh awaits confirmation.
The website stated that Kennedy has said that he will now do some judging on lower federal courts, as some other justices have done in the past. Constitution Daily said that there are hundreds of spots Kennedy can temporarily sit on in federal appeals courts.
Kennedy's vote helped usher in the rights for gays to marry, helped sustain Roe v. Wade, helped found new rights for children in trouble with the law, and questioned prison life, according to Constitution Daily.
Kennedy also often prevented the court from going to extremes, to the disappointment of those who want the body to tilt left or right.
Kennedy, as California native, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan after Robert Bork was rejected by the U.S. Senate, according to Britannica.com. In his first term, Kennedy sided with the more conservative wing of the court 90 percent of the time before becoming the court's reliable swing vote.
Showing just how pivotal Kennedy's "swing vote" was on the Supreme Court, National Public Radio reported that in 13 recent cases where the court has split along liberal and conservative lines, Kennedy provided the winning vote in each one.
Some have pointed to Chief Justice John Roberts as a person who could maintain Kennedy's legacy as the swing vote, according to NPR. The network stated while Roberts has been a consistent conservative vote on most issues, he did side with the court's liberals in declaring that police must obtain a warrant to obtain cellphone location information from service providers.
He also sided with liberals on a key vote upholding the individual mandate to the Affordable Care Act in 2012, helping galvanize the legality of so-called ObamaCare while angering many conservatives in the process, according to Politico.
Many shared their varied opinions on Kennedy's departure on social media.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.