By Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he considered retiring this year but decided he could still contribute on the bench. He expects to revisit the question after the court’s next term, according to excerpts of a CBS News interview released Friday.
The 76-year-old conservative justice discussed retirement in an interview scheduled to air Monday. It is the first of several expected appearances tied to the release of a book on his judicial philosophy, according to Politico.
“It’s something that I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” Alito 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’s eventual departure could give President Donald Trump a chance to appoint a fourth justice. Trump’s first-term appointments moved the court to the right, though he has since said he regrets some nominees who later ruled against his administration. A confirmation fight could become more difficult if Democrats win control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections.
Alito rejected the idea that the political timing of a retirement or the identity of a successor should affect how he does his job.
“It’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement,” he said.
The justice has faced protests and threats since writing the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. After a draft of the opinion leaked weeks before the ruling, abortion-rights activists published the home addresses of conservative justices and organized demonstrations outside their residences. Alito and his family were reportedly moved to an undisclosed location for their safety. New Conservative Post also reported that a media editor publicly raised the prospect of killing Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas.
Alito defended the ruling in the CBS interview, saying the justices did not know their draft had been leaked when they wrote it.
“We didn’t know it when we produced the draft that was leaked, but it required courage to go ahead with that because of the implications,” Alito said.
He said the decision cost him longtime friendships.
“That’s something you have to live with,” he said, adding, “It’s part of the job that you’re going to displease people by making decisions on controversial matters, because one side or the other is going to really dislike you because of the decisions.”
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