Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, 76, shot down speculation that he would be retiring this year in the wake of a mistaken NPR report, reassuring the public that he is “here for another term.”
Rumors swirled about Alito’s retirement plans after NPR published and then retracted an article by reporter Nina Totenberg that Alito would be retiring from his role on the bench at the end of the court’s 2025-26 term. Alito commented publicly on his actual plans in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Friday.
“Obviously I’m here for another term,” Alito told the outlet.
NPR announced that Totenberg misheard an announcement about retirements at the court, which she mistakenly took to mean Alito’s. The 76-year-old justice has been serving on the court for over 20 years after being appointed by former President George W. Bush, but is not the oldest or most tenured justice on the bench. Those honors belong to Justice Clarence Thomas, who was tapped by former President George H.W. Bush.
Still, the NPR story led to buzz about whether Alito planned on retiring, as a justice’s retirement gives the White House the power to appoint a new justice to the bench.
This occurred under former President Joe Biden‘s term, when Democrats held a majority in the Senate and quietly urged then-Justice Stephen Breyer, a Clinton appointee, to step down while Democrats could still replace him. By retiring under Biden, Breyer, then 83 years old, could avoid leaving a vacancy under a GOP president if he died when Biden was out of office, as Democrats had learned their lesson from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg‘s death during President Donald Trump‘s first term.
Ginsburg’s death gave the conservative justices the majority with Trump’s appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
When the Wall Street Journal asked Alito about calls for his own retirement, Alito brushed it off as what happens with a role that is a lifelong appointment.
“It’s not pleasant, in the sense that it’s a reminder of mortality,” he said.
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“It’s like, what are those vultures doing up there? They are flying around. But it goes with life tenure,” Alito continued.
Alito has sided with the Trump administration’s agenda on several high-profile cases this term, arguing Trump acted within his executive authority when issuing tariffs in the case of Learning Resources v. Trump and removing temporary protected status to allow the deportations of Haitian and Syrian nationals in Mullin v. Doe.