Anthony Kennedy to retire from Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 10: U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy is seen during a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House April 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. Earlier in the day Gorsuch, 49, was sworn in as the 113th Associate Justice in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

PHOTO: Eric Thayer/Getty Images

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy testifies before the House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on Capitol Hill March 8, 2007 in Washington, DC. Kennedy and Justice Clarence Thomas spoke about concerns with the ongoing remodeling of the court building, the reduction of paperwork due to electronic media and the disparity of pay between federal judges and lawyers working in the private sector.

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy prepares to testify before the House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on Capitol Hill March 8, 2007 in Washington, DC.

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(CNN) —

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who provided key votes for same sex-marriage, abortion access and affirmative action, will retire from the Supreme Court.

The retirement is effective July 31, Kennedy said in a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Kennedy’s decision to step down could transform the Supreme Court for generations. Trump will have his second opportunity to nominate a justice and will likely replace Kennedy with a young, conservative jurist. That would create a bloc of five staunch conservative justices who could move the court further to the right and cement a conservative majority for the foreseeable future.

The nomination battle will likely ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill as it comes just a year after Republicans changed the rules of the Senate in order to push through the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first nominee.

Trump said he has held Kennedy in high esteem, and that a search for a replacement will begin immediately.

“He’s been a great justice of the Supreme Court,” Trump said, later adding, “He is a man who’s displayed great vision, he’s displayed tremendous vision.”

Trump and Kennedy met shortly before the announcement was made.

“(We) had a very deep discussion. I got his ideas on things,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I asked him if he had certain people he had great respect for that could potentially take his seat.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 until the presidential election was held, paving the way for Gorsuch, said the Senate will move quickly.

“We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy’s successor this fall,” McConnell said Wednesday.

The court opening is also likely to drastically alter both parties’ approaches to November’s midterm elections. Republicans, in particular, hope the vacancy activates a base that the party has worried would sit out this year’s contests.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the five Democratic senators up for re-election in states Trump won by double digits: Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. If those five vote against Trump’s nominee, they’ll hand Republicans a potent issue to hammer them with. If they vote for the nominee, they risk severe retribution from within the Democratic Party.

Recalling McConnell’s action, Democrats have begun calling for a delay until after the midterms.

“Sen. McConnell set the new standard by giving the American people their say in the upcoming election before Court vacancies are filled,” said Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin. “With so much at stake for the people of our country, the US Senate must be consistent and consider the President’s nominee once the new Congress is seated in January.”

“Millions of people are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the President’s nominee, and their voices deserve to be heard now, as leader McConnell thought they should deserve to be heard then,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York. “Anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.”

The swing vote

Kennedy, 81, controlled the outcome of cases on hot-button issues like no other justice in recent history, as he often was the “swing vote” between the four liberal justices and the four more conservative justices.

A Ronald Reagan appointee who took the bench in 1988, Kennedy’s most lasting legacy will most likely be in the area of gay rights. In 2015, in it was Kennedy who penned Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark opinion that cleared the way for same-sex marriage nationwide.