Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr., left, and his wife Martha-Ann Alito, pay their respects at the casket of the Rev. Billy Graham in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, February 28, 2018.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais | P.A.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito “thought” about retiring after the high court’s final term, but decided against it, believing he could still make “a valuable contribution,” he said in an interview with CBS News.
Alito, 76, is the second-oldest justice on the bench, and speculation swirled that he would retire while Republicans control the Senate and White House — when the chances of quickly confirming a Republican-backed nominee to the bench would be high.
The possibility that the Senate turns to Democrats after the November midterm elections could make the confirmation of any potential nominee of President Donald Trump more difficult, if not impossible, if Democrats control the Senate.
“I’ve been baffled by the retirement speculation; it’s not very nice to look up and see the vultures circling,” Alito said in a separate interview with “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t have a calculation on that…I think it would be unwise to calculate that I’m going to serve for a certain number of additional years.”
Alito’s status as one of the Court’s most conservative justices sparked speculation that he would retire before the midterms — a decision the justice ultimately did not make. If Democrats took control of the Senate, they would effectively have veto power over a Supreme Court nomination.
Justice Clarence Thomas, 78 — the court’s longest-serving justice and a member of its conservative bloc — is also under retirement watch.
The politics and timing of Supreme Court vacancies have been closely watched since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to take up President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court until after the 2016 presidential election, giving Trump time to nominate and confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Then, after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, McConnell moved quickly to confirm Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, just over a week before the 2020 presidential election.
The Court is now controlled by a 6-3 conservative majority.
Democrats currently hold the advantage in national House polls and in the CBS News Battleground Tracker model, which estimates a slim Democratic majority after the midterm elections, which are just 30 days away. The Senate is also now in play, with Republicans engaged in surprisingly close races across the country amid voter anger over prices and the economy.
Democrats must win at least four seats while defending all of the seats they currently have to win a majority in the Senate.
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