Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he does not plan on retiring anytime soon, denying rumors that he is considering retirement this year.
“Obviously I’m here for another term,” Alito said in an interview published on Friday.
Samuel Alito staying on Supreme Court bench for another term after NPR erroneously reported his retirement https://t.co/HoRH6cJCTq pic.twitter.com/QphYYufVzs
— New York Post (@nypost) August 7, 2026
POLITICO has more:
NPR accidentally published an article announcing the conservative justice’s retirement in June, which it swiftly took down and apologized for. Journalist Nina Totenberg, a longtime legal affairs correspondent for NPR, later said the mistake happened because she incorrectly assumed that the court was announcing Alito’s retirement during announcements of staff retirements.
And some conservatives, mindful of the possibility Republicans may lose the Senate in November, have also quietly rooted for Alito to step aside — which would give President Donald Trump an opportunity to appoint another Supreme Court justice.
Alito also brushed aside those calls, dismissing the notion that judges are interchangeable parts, even with ideological peers.
“It’s not pleasant, in the sense that it’s a reminder of mortality,” he said. “It’s like, what are those vultures doing up there? They are flying around. But it goes with life tenure.”
The NPR incident sparked a flurry of speculation on whether the prewritten article’s accidental publication could indicate that Alito’s retirement was near. Newsrooms regularly prepare prewritten stories for the retirements and deaths of significant figures, and for other anticipated events.
Alito, 76, is the second-oldest justice on the high court, behind Justice Clarence Thomas, 78.
Totenberg issued an apology to Alito, saying “it was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism.”
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told the Wall Street Journal that he is “here for another term,” casting doubt on the idea that he might retire late this year to ensure President Donald Trump can appoint a successor. https://t.co/X3IAhyDRcK
— Bloomberg (@business) August 7, 2026
The Hill noted:
The justice also pushed back on critics who’ve taken aim at him for dissenting in favor of Trump in recent major decisions on tariffs, birthright citizenship and the firing of a Federal Reserve governor.
“I vote in every case the way I think the case should be decided. If that means a high correlation with what Trump wants, fine. If it means zero correlation with what Trump wants, fine as well,” Alito told the Journal.
The justice said he wouldn’t decide a cases the other way simply so people would call him objective. He called that “absolutely wrong.”
“There have been people who’ve recommended to me that I do that. I’m not going to do that,” he said in the interview.
What are your thoughts?