Hi, this is James and this is Stephanie. We're hearing Blenzi Spain overlooking the Mediterranean Sea celebrating the San Juan Festival

Which celebrates the summer solstice this podcast is recorded at 4.19 p.m. Wednesday June 27th

Things may have changed by the time you hear this okay

Hey there at the NPR politics podcast justice Anthony Kennedy announced this afternoon that he'll be retiring from the US Supreme Court

We're here to talk about his legacy and what his vacancy means for American politics. I'm Sarah McCammon

I'm covering the White House. I'm Nina Tottenberg NPR's Lila Ferris correspondent and I'm Ron Elving editor correspondent

Kennedy's vacancy means President Trump will have the chance to fill another seat on the high court a decision the president

Totted this afternoon when talking about Kennedy's retirement

We're gonna talk about the politics of this later, but to fully grasp the decision the president will be making

It's important to understand the role justice Kennedy has played on the court. So Nina you know this well. Who is justice Kennedy?

Well at the moment the Supreme Court is divided between four very very conservative justices

four liberal justices who in a in a previous era might have been called moderate conservatives, but on this quarter considered

Liberal and justice Kennedy who is by and large a conservative justice

But on some civil liberties issues will swing in the way of the liberal wing of the court

and so he has been the decider and

on an enormous number of cases

whether you're talking about

same-sex marriage and gay rights whether you're talking about gun rights whether you're talking about

campaign finance whether you're talking about

abortion in all of those cases he has cast deciding votes and

And when he is replaced by a more conservative member of the court this court will be more conservative

I suspect than any court in three quarters of a century. What do we know about why justice Kennedy is leaving now?

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