A Brief History Of Anthony Kennedy's Swing Vote — And The Landmark Cases It Swayed
For 30 years the justice has been known for breaking ties between the Supreme Court's liberal and conservative blocs — which means Kennedy has played a key role in many major cases. Here's a look.
Updated at 7:50 p.m. ET
Justice Anthony Kennedy announced Wednesday he would be retiring from the Supreme Court. With him go his three decades of experience on the bench and, more politically pressing, his moderate legal philosophy.
It was this centrist streak that made his vote the key in many deeply divisive cases — so many, in fact, that Kennedy earned himself a reputation as the court's quintessential "swing vote."
Kennedy himself was no fan of the term. "The cases swing," he once said. "I don't." But when the high court's conservative and liberal blocs appeared at a stalemate — a fairly frequent occurrence in recent years — it would be no surprise to find his name in the slim majority when the ruling was released.
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