Alito Says He Weighed Retiring as Senate Democrats Signal Resistance to Nominees

Justice Samuel Alito said he considered retiring from the Supreme Court this year but decided to stay because he believes he can still make a valuable contribution, comments that sharpened an already intense fight over who will fill the next vacancy on the court.

In an interview with CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, Alito, 76, said retirement is something a person his age has to think about every term. He rejected the idea that presidential politics should decide when a justice leaves, saying it is too hard to predict what the political situation or a future president will be. Segments of the interview air Monday, as he prepares to publish his first book, “So Ordered,” a collection of speeches.

Alito, who marked 20 years on the court in January, is one of its two oldest members, along with Justice Clarence Thomas, 78. Speculation had grown during the last term that he might step down while Republicans control the Senate, allowing President Trump to choose his successor.

Democrats are making the court part of their midterm pitch. They need a net gain of four seats to win the Senate. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said a central reason to retake the chamber is to stop Mr. Trump from seating what he called MAGA justices on the Supreme Court and lower courts, NBC News reported. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said a Democratic Senate would very likely not support a Trump Supreme Court nominee. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Democrats should do exactly what Republican leader Mitch McConnell did in 2016, when he kept a seat open for about 10 months during President Barack Obama’s final year.

Not every Democrat has committed. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said she favors a structural change that would give each president two nominations, after which justices would move to senior status. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who would likely lead the Judiciary Committee in a Democratic Senate, said he did not know how nominations would be handled.

Republicans have seized on the comments. Senator Darline Graham of South Carolina wrote that a Republican Senate is needed to confirm any nominee if Alito retires next year, warning that Democrats would block a Trump pick, and Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said such a nominee would have only a very slim chance under Democratic control. Many Republicans argue that the Senate owes a president’s qualified nominees a fair vote and that a blanket blockade would further politicize the court. Democrats reply that Republicans wrote that playbook themselves in 2016.

In the interview, Alito also defended his 2022 majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, saying he does not regret it and that he had lost friendships over it. He said harsh attacks on the court from politicians of both parties can be damaging, noting criticism from the Biden administration as well as Mr. Trump’s recent attacks on conservative justices who ruled against him. He rejected the view that the justices are driven by politics.

Across his two terms, Mr. Trump has appointed 290 federal judges in nearly six years in office, including three Supreme Court justices in his first term, all confirmed by a Republican Senate, NBC News reported.