Kennedy, who turns 81 in July, has served for over 29 years and four months. He is the longest-serving justice currently on the court.
Source: SCOTUS, Biography.com
On average, justices serve about 16 years on the high court. The longest serving member was Justice was William O. Douglas, who served for 36 years, 7 months, and eight days from 1939 to 1975.
Source: SCOTUS
Kennedy has often angered Republicans for failing to side with other conservatives on key issues. As rumors of his retirement swirl, many liberals worry that Kennedy's absence would swing the Supreme Court decisively in Trump's favor.
Source: Biography.com, CNN
In April 2017, Kennedy swore in Neil Gorsuch as the new Supreme Court Justice. President Donald Trump's pick to fill the spot left by Justice Antonin Scalia's death, Gorsuch once served as a law clerk for Kennedy.
Sources: SCOTUS, Business Insider
Kennedy's "swing vote" reputation was cemented after other moderate Justice O'Connor retired in 2005. Still, Kennedy himself has reportedly hated being called the "swing vote" in the media.
"The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons can together find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality," Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion on the landmark case. "This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation."
Source: Business Insider
Kennedy has also emerged as an unexpected LGBT rights icon. He has frequently voted in support of their rights and, in 2015, was the decisive vote in legalizing gay marriage across the country.
Sources: Politico, Business Insider
"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life," Kennedy once wrote in a ruling that upheld the landmark Roe v. Wade case guaranteeing women's constitutional access to abortion.
Source: Slate
In the same year, Kennedy also provided the fifth vote in a ruling that gave people arrested on suspicions of terrorism the right to challenge their detention in court.
Source: Supreme Court Review
As the court's strongest moderate, Kennedy often offers the decisive vote in controversial cases. In 2008, he moved the court against tighter gun control and toward individual rights to possess a firearm.
Source: Supreme Court Review
Throughout his time as a Supreme Court justice, Kennedy gained a reputation as a "swing" vote. He has at times voted more liberally on issues that concern individual freedoms.
Source: Biography.com
More conservative during his early years in the Supreme Court, Kennedy started taking more moderate positions as time went on.
Source: Biography.com
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in 1987.
Source: Biography.com
In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed him to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which oversees Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Source: SCOTUS
Kennedy has been married to Mary Davis since 1963. The couple has three children.
Source: Biography.com
A devout Roman Catholic, Kennedy has often been described as a "goody-goody" in his early years. While on a summer trip to Europe, Kennedy once kept a bottle of whisky given to him by his father intact throughout the trip.
Source: U.S. News
After finishing college at Stanford, Kennedy graduated from Harvard Law School, spent a year in the army, and then went on to teach constitutional law at the University of the Pacific in California.
Sources: SCOTUS, Biography.com
Anthony McLeod Kennedy was born in Sacramento, California in 1936. Kennedy grew up with parents who were politically active, and often met well known lawmakers as a young boy.
Source: Biography.com
