It’s an odd moment for liberals to mourn Justice Kennedy, who’ll turn 82 next month, and for conservatives to relish his departure. He did nothing important for liberals this term, failing to provide even one crucial fifth vote to swing the outcome of a case in their direction.

After he had appeared to invite a challenge to partisan gerrymandering way back in 2004, a case finally arrived in the just-concluded term, with the social science measures of partisanship he had asked for. But Justice Kennedy ducked without even writing to explain why as the court decided the case on narrow technical grounds. And though his principal left-leaning legacy is his expansion of gay rights, especially marriage equality, he settled for another narrow resolution this month, writing the majority opinion that favored the religious objections of a Colorado baker over a gay couple’s right to be treated like anyone else when they walk into a store and order a wedding cake.

Justice Kennedy also voted with his conservative allies this week to dilute the power of minority voters in Texas. He helped to expand the reach of private, case-by-case arbitration, making it more difficult for employees to band together to confront their employers about wage theft and other problems. On Wednesday, hours before announcing his retirement, he helped diminish the influence of unions. And let’s not forget Justice Kennedy’s vote in Bush v. Gore and his opinion in Citizens United, with its blindness to the reality of how money corrupts our political process.

And yet, the difference between a court with Justice Kennedy and one with a Trump-chosen replacement for him is likely to be the difference between incremental and drastic change in crucial areas of law, between baby steps and giant ones.

The path of reasoning the court takes from case to case often matters as much as the outcomes. Some justices with a vision (and a majority behind them) are more patient than others. Justice Kennedy was of the slow-cook variety. Before his majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Kennedy’s gift of same-sex marriage to the country, there were his majority opinions in United States v. Windsor, which granted some rights to gay couples, and Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the sodomy laws that targeted them.