In the moments after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, words like wow, huge, massive, seismic, and titanic passed through my Twitter feed. All of them are accurate. And maybe even understated. “On almost every major issue that has faced the court in recent years, neither the court’s liberal, Democratic-appointed justices nor Kennedy’s fellow Republican-appointed conservative colleagues could prevail without his swing vote.” DC lawmakers now prepare for what could be an epic battle over Donald Trump’s second justice selection, one that could remake the court for a generation. From WaPo: Justice Kennedy, the pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, announces retirement. (In other news, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85.)

+ Here are the latest updates and reactions via CNN.

+ “An America after Anthony Kennedy looks significantly different from America before. The movement against mass incarceration could run into unprecedented resistance from the Court, and the anti-abortion movement could notch its greatest victories in a half-century. This Supreme Court vacancy will give Donald Trump the power to shift jurisprudence on a range of critical issues. It could wind up being the most important part of his legacy.” Vox: America after Anthony Kennedy.

+ Meanwhile, in what we expected to be the big Supreme Court news of the day, the Court dealt a sharp defeat to public employee unions.