Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a crucial swing vote for more than a decade on many of the most important cases, announced Wednesday that he will retire effective July 31, preparing the way for the most significant change in the court’s makeup in half a century.

The vacancy will allow President Donald Trump to transform the Supreme Court into a solidly conservative body for years, if not generations, to come — a towering and lasting legacy of the president’s brief time in office. Trump can be expected to tap someone as ideologically to the right as Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has voted reliably with the court’s other conservatives in nearly every case since joining the bench just over a year ago.

By contrast, Kennedy sometimes voted with conservatives and other times joined liberals, including on the landmark ruling that legalized gay marriage.

Source: NBC News