Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito does not intend to retire in light of President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s election sparked speculation Alito and Thomas, 74 and 76 years old, respectively, would retire to enable Trump to appoint younger conservative justices to the bench. However, people close to the justice told the WSJ this is not a factor in Alito’s plans.
“Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,” an individual close to Alito told the WSJ. “The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is.”
Alito already hired a law clerk for the 2025-2026 term and will likely have the rest within the next few months, the WSJ reported.
Conservative legal activist and Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo called speculation about justices’ retirements “crass” in a Friday statement.
“No one other than Justices Thomas and Alito knows when or if they will retire, and talking about them like meat that has reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed and frankly just crass,” Leo said, according to CNN.
During his first term, Trump had Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court, along with over 200 federal judges. He’s slated to begin his second term with fewer available vacancies.
With the Republican Senate majority, Trump should have an easier time getting his appointees confirmed.
Some Senate Democrats began suggesting after Trump’s victory that Justice Sonia Sotomayor should step down to allow a new justice to be confirmed before the next administration, however, the WSJ also reported Sunday that Sotomayor does not have plans to retire.
The Supreme Court’s public information office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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