Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito FINALLY SHUTS DOWN Retirement Rumors: “Obviously I’m Here for Another Term”

The retirement rumor mill has crashed into reality. Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is not planning to retire this year.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday, Justice Alito put an end to the feverish speculation from the left and even some nervous conservatives: He is not retiring this year.

“Obviously I’m here for another term,” the 76-year-old justice told WSJ’s James Taranto in his chambers.

Alito, the author of the landmark 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion policy to the states and the people, dismissed the constant calls for him to step aside so President Donald Trump could appoint a younger replacement while Republicans still control the Senate.

“It’s not pleasant, in the sense that it’s a reminder of mortality,” Alito said of the retirement pressure. “It’s like, what are those vultures doing up there? They are flying around. But it goes with life tenure.”

Alito made clear he will not treat his seat as interchangeable with a younger clone simply to satisfy political strategists.

“I vote in every case the way I think the case should be decided,” Alito told the Journal. “If that means a high correlation with what Trump wants, fine. If it means zero correlation with what Trump wants, fine as well.” He rejected the idea of deciding cases just to appear “balanced.”

CBS News reported in April that people close to Alito confirmed he did not intend to step down in 2026. Fox News separately reported that Alito was staying through the Court’s term and had hired all four clerks for the upcoming term.

Alito, 76, has served on the Court since 2006 and remains one of its most dependable originalist voices. He authored the landmark Dobbs opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, instantly making him one of the Left’s most hated public figures.

The speculation intensified earlier this year after commentators seized on the October publication date of Alito’s forthcoming book as a supposed clue that he might leave the bench before the midterm elections.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported on that theory in February after The Nation columnist Elie Mystal argued the book schedule was a “giant tell” that Alito would retire at the end of the Court’s term.

That prediction did not age well.

By April, The Gateway Pundit reported that sources said both Alito and fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas were not planning to retire this year. President Trump had already told Fox Business that he was prepared to name replacements if vacancies opened, but the decision belongs to the justices—and neither conservative appears ready to surrender his seat.

Then came the media fiasco of the summer.

On June 30, NPR briefly published a story claiming that Alito was retiring. The report was wrong. NPR pulled it, issued a retraction, and acknowledged that no retirement had been announced. The Supreme Court’s public information office flatly denied that Alito or the Court had made any such announcement.

The Gateway Pundit covered the spectacular reversal as the false story ricocheted across the political media. The outlet later reported NPR’s explanation: veteran Court reporter Nina Totenberg had misheard a reference to multiple staff retirement announcements and mistakenly concluded that Alito was stepping down.

In other words, the retirement story that many in Washington appeared ready to believe was not a scoop. It was a blunder.

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