Justice Samuel Alito Plans to Remain on Supreme Court
Some Republicans suggest the veteran jurist could step down to let Trump appoint a younger conservative (These “supposed Republicans" are trying to subvert the Court, it’s not about younger people. It was democrats leaking this)
By Jess Bravin Nov. 12, 2024 9:39 am ET
WASHINGTON—Justice Samuel Alito has no plans to step down from the Supreme Court, people close to the justice said, tamping down speculation among legal activists that the 74-year old jurist was readying to retire so that President-elect Donald Trump could fill his seat with a younger conservative.
“Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,” said one person close to Alito. “The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is.”
Trump’s election last week set off renewed discussions over the future of the Supreme Court, where the three eldest justices are in their 70s.
With Republicans set to take both the White House and Senate come January, there will be at least a two-year span when the GOP can fill vacancies without need of compromise with Democrats.
Some Republicans(who are they), have suggested that would be a good time for Alito, appointed in 2006 by President George W. Bush, and Justice Clarence Thomas, 76, a 1991 appointee of President George H.W. Bush, to step aside for younger nominees who could perpetuate the court’s conservative direction for decades to come.
A majority of Americans view the Supreme Court as politically motivated, public opinion surveys have shown. But across the ideological spectrum, the justices prefer to see themselves as standing apart from partisan politics, and Washington’s postelection chatter is proving irksome within the court, people familiar with the matter said.
Conservatives hold a 6-3 advantage on the court, a position cemented after Trump appointed three justices during his first term.
Alito has been a central part of the conservative ascendancy. In 2022, he wrote the opinion achieving a decadeslong goal that once seemed impossibly out of reach: Overruling Roe v. Wade, which in 1973 had recognized women’s right to abortion before fetal viability. People who know Alito say he is in good health, enjoys his work and has more to contribute to the court’s jurisprudence.
Alito has already hired one law clerk for the 2025-26 term, and is on track to hire his full complement of four in the coming months, people familiar with the matter said.
Justices serve with life tenure, which means any vacancy has the potential to impact the law for a generation. Neither Republicans nor Democrats want to risk their share of the court’s composition on the uncertainties of a justice’s health or the fickleness of the voters in periodic elections.
Hanging over the discussions is the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020, which gave Trump a pivotal seat to fill during the final months of his first term. Ginsburg died at age 87 after resisting calls from liberals to retire in the early 2010s, when President Barack Obama could have seen a nominee confirmed by a majority Democratic Senate. Trump’s replacement of her with Justice Amy Coney Barrett gave the court the votes it needed to overrule Roe.
A number of Democrats are now focused on the future of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, the most senior member of the court’s liberal minority. Some have suggested that she step down before power changes hands, allowing President Biden and Senate Democrats to install a younger progressive.
But people close to Sotomayor recently told The Wall Street Journal that she remains in good health and has no plans to step downsolely because Republicans soon will control Supreme Court appointments. Rather, they say, she believes she continues to have an important role to play on the court, even in dissent. (Bidan pushed Breyer out to put KBJ in, so he could appoint a SCJ, sick fuck).
https://archive.is/dwbsM#selection-611.0-5927.19