Defending the family

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Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire

CNBC REPORTING:

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire from the highest U.S. court, giving President Donald Trump another chance to fundamentally reshape the top of the judiciary.

In a letter to Trump dated Wednesday, Kennedy said he would step down.

"For a member of the legal profession, it is the highest of honors to serve on this Court," he wrote. "Please permit me by this letter to express my profound gratitude for having had the privilege to seek in each case how best to know, interpret and defend the Constitution and the laws that must always conform to its mandates and promises.

The president's first nominee to the court, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, has already had an enormous effect on U.S. policy in rulings this week related to Trump's ban on travel from certain countries, abortion and labor unions.