"I've loved it, but you just get tired," Hawai'i Supreme Court Justice Steven Levinson said today in announcing his plans to step down from the bench at the end of the year.

Levinson, 62, said he and his wife, Cathy, have been discussing his retirement prospects for "a couple of years" and have decided the time is right to step aside.

He said is financially secure and has no immediate plans for the future other than "to relax, catch up on pleasure reading and maybe do some traveling."

The unexpected departure of Levinson gives Gov. Linda Lingle the opportunity to fill another vacancy on the state's high court. She appointed James Duffy in 2003 and she will still be in office in 2010 to name a replacement when Chief Justice Ronald Moon hits the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Levinson this morning called Moon "my oldest professional friend, my big brother, my role model, my mentor."

Moon "leaned on me pretty hard" to stay on the court, Levinson said, but in the end understood and acquiesced in the retirement decision.

He said his financial independence will allow him to pursue "pro bono" or voluntary legal work for issues and causes of his choosing.

Levinson said he has no regrets about his 17 years of service on the high court.

He's proudest of writing the ground-breaking legal opinion in 1993 that made Hawai'i the first state to recognize same-sex marriages.

He said he didn't think he had given the subject "a single thought" before the issue was raised in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Now, he said, "I don't think I'm prouder of anything I've ever done. It changed the history of the world."

A constitutional amendment passed by Hawai'i voters in 1998 nullified the same-sex marriage decision.