WASHINGTON, D.C. — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed Friday that he plans to remain on the court for another term, ending months of speculation that he might retire while President Donald Trump and Republicans retain the ability to confirm a successor.
Alito, 76, told The Wall Street Journal that he intends to serve through the term beginning in October and running into summer 2027. His decision preserves the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority and prevents Trump, for now, from gaining an opportunity to appoint a fourth justice.
Some conservative activists have encouraged Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas to retire while Republicans control the Senate, arguing that younger replacements could secure the court’s ideological balance for decades.
Speculation intensified in June after NPR mistakenly published a prewritten article saying Alito was retiring. The outlet quickly retracted the report after the Supreme Court said it was inaccurate.
Alito pushed back against the idea that justices are politically interchangeable and criticized commentators who evaluate the court primarily through partisan outcomes.
He also defended his independence from Trump, saying he decides cases according to his interpretation of the law regardless of whether the outcome benefits the president.
Alito was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and wrote the majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. His decision to stay removes one potential Supreme Court vacancy from the immediate political calendar.
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