Overview
- In interviews released Friday, Justice Samuel Alito, 76, said he weighed retiring this year but decided to remain on the court and will reconsider retirement at the end of each term.
- Alito said retirement timing is unpredictable because of personal factors and political uncertainty, noting he could not forecast what any president might do about a replacement.
- He warned that rising threats and harassment against judges represent a new danger for the courts and said the 2022 Dobbs decision he authored cost him friendships.
- Alito said he has a "pretty good idea" who leaked the draft of the Dobbs opinion but that the evidence is not strong enough for him to name a suspect, leaving the leak unresolved despite earlier probes.
- His decision heightens the stakes of the November midterms because a future vacancy would give President Trump a chance at a fourth Supreme Court pick and make Senate control pivotal for confirmation fights.