Overview
- On Friday, Justice Samuel Alito told a CBS News correspondent that he had considered retiring this year but decided to remain on the bench and will reassess the decision each term.
- Alito said threats, harassment and other new pressures on judges played into his thinking and described those risks as a danger to the courts.
- By not announcing a departure date, Alito left open the chance that President Trump could get another vacancy to fill, which would make control of the Senate decisive for confirmation.
- The remarks came in excerpts tied to Alito’s book tour and follow earlier rumors that were fueled by an erroneous NPR report that the outlet later retracted.
- Alito is 76 and authored the 2022 Dobbs opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, so his timing matters for the future of major rulings and for people affected by those decisions.