Justice Samuel Alito Jr. before a press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, in Washington, DC.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said in a new report that he plans to stay on the court at least until next summer, even if Democrats retake the Senate majority from Republicans in November’s midterm elections.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Alito, 76, had ruled out retiring during the brief post-election lame-duck Congress. In this session, even if Republicans lose control in the next Congress, they will maintain a Senate majority until early January.
If Democrats gain a majority in the next Congress, they could block Republican President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominations.
“I intend to see this term through to the end,” Alito told Bloomberg, referring to the court’s current term, which begins Monday and ends in late June or early July.
“I made that decision many months ago,” Alito said. Mr. Alito’s first book, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country,” has just been published.
Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2005 by then-President George W. Bush, also a Republican. Alito is one of six conservative justices on the nine-member court. Three other conservatives were nominated by Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Bloomberg reported that Alito admitted in an interview that thoughts of retirement had crossed his mind.
However, he also said, “I don’t feel mentally or physically weakened,” according to the report.
In a recent interview with CBS News, Alito said he is considering retiring this year.
“I think when you get to my age, it’s something you have to think about every season,” he told CBS.
Senate Democrats remain troubled by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2016 blockade from the Senate considering President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. The blockage, McConnell argued, was because there wasn’t enough time to consider the nomination, which was made in March, paving the way for Trump to appoint Gorsuch after he took office.
Following the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020, Kentucky McConnell orchestrated the quick confirmation of Coney Barrett just before that year’s presidential election, but the election ended in Trump’s defeat, leaving Democratic President Joe Biden to take office in early 2021.
