So i just want to thank Justice Kennedy for the years of tremendous service. Hes a very spectacular man. Really is, spectacular man. And i know that he will be around hopefully for a long time to advise. Our special coverage begins with nbcs Pete Williams outside the United States Supreme Court and Chris Matthews, host of hardball here on msnbc. Pete, lets start with you. Tell us what happened. It was one of these thing we have been discussing for the last few days, that people have been anticipating but they werent sure it was going to happen. He was up against a deadline whether or not he was going to retire or wait until the next session. Actually im not sure there is a deadline. The Supreme Court justices tend to do whatever they want. The tradition has been that most of them announce their retirement before the last day. The last couple have been in march or april. Justice kennedy, i guess, believes in precedent because the man he relaced on the Supreme Court also announced his in