Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito elaborated on his decision not to retire from the high court, despite facing pressure from some conservatives to step aside while Republicans still control the Senate.
Alito, 76, told CBS News in an interview clip released Friday that his decision came down to whether he could keep contributing to the court.
“I thought about it. It’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” he said. “But I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution, which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place.”
Alito, who wrote the 2022 majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, became one of the court’s staunchest conservatives after being nominated by President George W. Bush in 2005.
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When reporter Jan Crawford asked whether Alito would reconsider retirement each year, he replied: “Yeah, I think I have to.”
His decision to stay could carry consequences beyond the coming court term. Republicans can currently confirm a successor without Democratic support, but if Democrats win control of the Senate in November, they could block any of Donald Trump’s future nominees through his final two years in office. The president appointed three justices during his first term, cementing the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled in April that his party was prepared to confirm a successor before the midterm elections
“These guys, they make their own decisions,” Thune told reporters. “But if you were going to do something, obviously doing it when we have an opportunity — control of the Senate and the White House and everything else — is obviously, from a timing standpoint, would be certainly our preference.”
Questions about Alito’s retirement became more public earlier this summer when NPR mistakenly reported that he was stepping down, a report the outlet quickly retracted. Alito has characterized the pressure as an unpleasant “reminder of mortality,” he said in August — describing it as “vultures” circling overheard.
In August, Trump publicly praised Alito’s decision to remain on the bench, calling him “one of the greatest of all time.”
Crawford pressed Alito on whether staying could jeopardize his legacy, pointing to the swift reversal of former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s accomplishments on the court as an example. Her death in 2020 allowed Trump to replace the liberal justice with conservative Amy Coney Barrett.
“It’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement,” Alito replied.
Alito’s autobiography, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country,” which explores his role in authoring major opinions, comes out Tuesday.
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