Justice Samuel Alito plans to remain on the Supreme Court through at least next summer and has ruled out a post-midterm lame-duck retirement, even if Democrats retake the Senate.
CNBC reported that the 76-year-old associate justice told Bloomberg he intends to finish the current term and made that call many months ago.
The court’s term began Monday and runs into late June or early July. Alito’s decision keeps one of six conservative seats filled on the nine-member bench while Republicans still hold the Senate majority through early January, even if November’s midterms flip control for the next Congress.
That timing matters. If Democrats win the Senate, the article notes they may block any Supreme Court nominee from President Donald Trump. Alito’s choice removes a lame-duck opening that would have tested that threat right away.
Alito spoke ahead of an interview at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., with a photo dated Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. His first book, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country,” has just been published.
Bloomberg carried his plain statement of intent.
"I intend to stick around through this term,"
He added the timing of the call.
"I made that decision many months ago,"
And he answered the fitness question directly.
"I don't feel mentally or physically decrepit,"
Then-President George W. Bush nominated Alito in 2005. He remains one of the six conservatives on the court. Trump later nominated Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, the last confirmed shortly before the 2020 election after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death that September.
Readers tracking the same justice will recall earlier coverage when Justice Alito confirmed he would stay and preserve the conservative majority.
In a recent CBS News interview, Alito said he considered retiring this year. He framed it as a standing duty at his age.
"It's something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,"
He has now closed the door on walking away during the short lame-duck window after the November election. Republicans would still control the Senate through early January even if they lose the chamber for the next Congress. That window is the last stretch when a Trump nominee could clear a Republican Senate before any Democratic majority takes over.
Democrats, still stung by past nomination fights, have every incentive to hold a vacancy if they regain the majority. Alito’s decision denies them that opening for now.
The same court has already delivered wins that Democrats resist, including when the Supreme Court cleared a path for Trump’s mail-voting order.
The modern playbook is familiar. In 2016, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the chamber from considering President Barack Obama’s March nomination of Merrick Garland. McConnell said there was not enough time before the election.
After Ginsburg died in September 2020, McConnell moved the other way. He orchestrated the swift confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett shortly before that year’s presidential election. Trump lost, and Joe Biden took office in early 2021. The seat stayed in conservative hands.
Those two episodes still shape every retirement rumor. A justice who leaves while the opposite party holds the White House or the Senate hands the other side a lifetime appointment. A justice who stays through a full term forces the politics onto the next election cycle instead.
Alito’s move fits that pattern. He keeps the seat filled past the midterms and past the lame-duck. Any Democratic bid to block a Trump replacement would have to wait for an actual vacancy that does not yet exist.
That same bench has also backed enforcement priorities, as when the Supreme Court let Trump’s DHS scrub illegal immigrants from voter rolls.
Six conservatives still sit on the nine-member court. Alito’s commitment runs at least through late June or early July. No retirement paperwork appears in the reporting. No court statement announces a departure. The record is his interview language and the calendar he has now locked in.
He has already stepped aside from discrete matters when required, including a recent climate damages dispute in which Alito recused from a major climate case against oil companies. Staying on the court is a different choice. It keeps his vote in the mix for the rest of the term’s docket.
Trump’s earlier appointments, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, built the current majority. Alito’s refusal to create a midterm vacancy protects that structure against a Senate flip. Democrats can campaign against the court. They cannot replace a justice who will not leave.
Further downstream, the court has continued to clear space for administration policy, including when it cleared the way for Trump third-country deportations pending full review.
Alito’s book is out. The term is underway. The justice who once said retirement crosses his mind every term has now said, on the record, that this term is not the exit.
Judges who keep their seats force politicians to win elections instead of waiting on a vacancy. That is how constitutional majorities endure.