Liberals freak out over Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement

People took to Twitter to react to news of Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement from the Supreme Court. People took to Twitter to react to news of Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement from the Supreme Court. Photo: Screenshot Via Twitter Photo: Screenshot Via Twitter Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Liberals freak out over Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

With 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's Wednesday's announcement of his retirement effective July 31, liberals are freaking out.

Click through the gallery above for reactions to the news

Some coped with the news with dark humor and jokes about Supreme Court Justice Sean Hannity, while others jumped right to naked panic and dread.

An observant Catholic who leaned right and was nominated to the court by Ronald Reagan, Kennedy nevertheless was a swing vote who sided with the court's liberal block in several pivotal cases over the years, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which granted same-sex couples the right to marry; Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the right to abortion; Boumediene v. Bush, which granted detainees at Guantanamo Bay the right to appear in court; and Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned laws criminalizing sodomy.

MAIN STORY: Justice Kennedy retiring; Trump gets second court pick

News of the retirement, which frees up space on the court for Trump to nominate another far-right justice in the mold of Justice Neil Gorsuch, is salt on the wound liberals were already feeling this week. Gorsuch ruled with the conservative block to uphold the Trump travel ban, deliver a blow to public sector unions, and overturn a California law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to post information about abortion.

The 5-4 split on many major cases underscored how different things might have been had Republicans in Congress not blocked a hearing on tben-President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland for eight months, claiming the American people should be able to weigh in via the election.

Many called on Dems to block whatever replacement Trump nominates, pointing out that it's closer to the midterm elections (132 days) than Antonin Scalia's unexpected death was to the presidential election of 2016; Garland was nominated 237 days before the election.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter