Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring from the Supreme Court

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

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Emily Stewart covered business and economics for Vox and wrote the newsletter The Big Squeeze, examining the ways ordinary people are being squeezed under capitalism. Before joining Vox, she worked for TheStreet.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring.

Kennedy, 81, announced on Wednesday that he had submitted a formal notification to President Donald Trump that he will retire on July 31. “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,” Kennedy said in a statement.

Kennedy, the longest-serving member on the Supreme Court, has been the swing vote in many of the court’s most ideologically charged decisions in recent years, including on rulings that legalized same-sex marriage, preserved Roe v. Wade, upheld warrantless wiretapping, blew up campaign finance restrictions, overturned DC’s handgun ban, and weakened the Voting Rights Act.

Vox’s Dylan Matthews has an explainer on his legacy and the implications of his retirement here.

Kennedy said that while his family was willing for him to continue to serve, he wants to spend more time with them. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice on February 18, 1988.

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