D.A. King, the head of an Atlanta-area group that opposes illegal immigration, heard word of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement while vacationing on St. Simons Island, off the Georgia coast. He was elated thinking of the conservative who might replace him.

Kristen Clarke, a civil rights lawyer, heard the news on the radio not far from the Supreme Court itself, as she was driving to a Capitol Hill hearing about the Voting Rights Act. She figured her job defending voting rights was about to become much more of a challenge.

In West Hollywood, Curtis Collins was working out at Barry’s Bootcamp, and he said the Supreme Court justice’s announcement dominated the Wednesday afternoon conversation among the predominantly gay group of men exercising there. “Everybody was talking about it, how appalling it was,” he said. “Everyone was saying they were scared. We don’t normally talk about politics in there.”

And in North Carolina, as the news of the impending retirement flashed on Amy Mahle’s phone, she wondered whether God might soon answer her prayers — and let her finally see the high court overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case establishing a constitutional right to abortion. “I think it’s possible,” she said. “I would love that.”