Justice Alito says he will weigh retirement each term, warns of threats against justices in CBS interview
The 76-year-old Supreme Court justice discussed his future, the fallout from the Dobbs leak, and political pressure on the court in recent interviews with CBS and Fox News.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he will consider retirement each term after deciding to remain on the bench this year and warned in a wide-ranging CBS interview that threats against justices and harsh political rhetoric endanger the court.
In a CBS interview published Oct. 4, the 76-year-old justice told correspondent Jan Crawford that he “thought about” retiring at the end of the Supreme Court term in June, saying that “it’s something that I think somebody at my age has to think about every term.”
“But I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution — which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place,” he added.
Crawford then asked, “So you’ll be considering this probably every year, rethinking it?” to which Alito responded, “Yeah, I think I have to.”
According to CBS News, some conservatives have called for Alito to retire while Republicans control the Senate to give President Donald Trump an opportunity to nominate his successor. Alito, however, said political considerations did not drive his decision to remain on the court.
“It's too hard to predict what the political situation will be,” he said, “and what any president might do with respect to a replacement.”
In a separate Fox News interview aired Oct. 4, host Shannon Bream asked Alito whether he had a “calculation” for when he might retire. He said it “would be foolhardy” to calculate that he would serve a certain number of additional years.
“I’m grateful for every day when I wake up, and I’m still here — and grateful for every day when I wake up, and I’m still able to do the job.”
The Dobbs leak and threats against justices
During the CBS interview, Alito also warned that physical threats and harassment endanger the courts and others in public life. He acknowledged losing friends over his decisions, including his majority opinion in the 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Weeks before the court released that decision, Politico published a leaked copy of Alito’s draft opinion, a breach he said continues to affect the court.
“The leak has cast a pall over the court to a degree because we don't know who was responsible for that,” Alito told CBS News. “It's something that I don't think we can get out of our minds.”
Alito said he was “stunned” when he learned about the leak during a lunch with his colleagues.
“It was quite a shock,” Alito said. “But within a relatively short period of time, the thought occurred to me, and I think to the others in the majority, that this would endanger us. And it made us targets for assassination.”
About a month after Politico published the draft, authorities arrested Nicholas Roske near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home. Roske had traveled from California with a firearm, ammunition, and burglary tools intending to kill the justice, according to the Department of Justice. He later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Speaking about the incident, Alito said the would-be assassin’s goal “was to change the decision in the case.” Politico “knew or should’ve known that that would be the consequence of their decision to publish it,” he added.
Asked whether he regretted writing Dobbs because of the threats he and his colleagues received, Alito immediately replied, “No.”
“It was a privilege to be able to write it. And I don't regret it, despite what it led to,” he said. “I don't think I anticipated the particulars of what it led to. I did anticipate that there would be strong opposition.”
He distinguished the criticism that accompanies controversial decisions from threats against the people making them, saying that it’s “part of the job that you’re going to displease people by making decisions on controversial matters.”
But he added that the “physical threats and the harassment represent something new in our society, and something that’s quite disturbing.”
“I think it’s a danger,” Alito added. “It's a danger for the courts. And it’s a danger for others in public life.”
Interpreting the Constitution and building a majority
Alito also discussed his approach to interpreting the Constitution and building support for majority opinions. He said he believes the Constitution has “a fixed meaning, and it still means today what it was understood to mean when it was adopted, and I will not depart from that.”
He said that while securing five votes matters, a justice should not sacrifice an important legal principle or depart from the Constitution to assemble a majority.
Reflecting on the court’s work since he joined in 2006, following his nomination by former President George W. Bush, Alito said the justices have “stood up for freedom of speech, which is endangered” and “done a lot to protect religious liberty.”
“We have vindicated the principle that the laws should be applied equally to everybody, regardless of race or ethnic background,” he added. “We have tried to restore the original structure of the government as it was set out in the Constitution — but that's an ongoing project.”
Political criticism and pressure on the court
Alito also pushed back against suggestions that the court’s decisions are intended to advance a political agenda.
“We are not part of any political movement. And we are not attempting to further any political agenda,” he told Crawford. “We are trying to interpret the Constitution as best we can and apply it in the cases that come before us.”
He said harsh criticism from political leaders in either party is “quite damaging” to the court.
“There’s been a great change in what presidents have said about the court when they are unhappy about our decisions,” he argued. “But the criticism of the court — I want to be even-handed on this. The criticism of the court by President Biden and justices, by President Biden and his administration was very harsh. And President Trump has been very harsh.”
During the Fox News interview, Alito also expressed concern about the court’s future and efforts to influence its decisions when Bream asked about proposals to expand the court or impose term limits or mandatory retirement ages for justices.
“There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court, try to influence us to decide cases differently,” he said, adding that protecting the court matters because it “has been fundamental in protecting our constitutional structure and the rights that all Americans enjoy.”
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