Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed he considered stepping down this year but chose to remain on the bench, saying he believes he can still contribute. The admission came in a CBS News interview clip released Friday.
Alito, 76, was nominated by President George W. Bush and has served on the Supreme Court since 2006. He told CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford that the question of retirement is one he will revisit every term, and he gave no indication of when, or whether, he plans to leave.
Asked to confirm he had weighed retiring, Alito said the decision is now a recurring one.
“Well, it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” he said. “But I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution, which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place. So that was basically it.”
When Crawford asked if he would reconsider annually, Alito answered simply: “Yeah, I think I have to.”
Crawford also pressed him on whether delaying his decision could jeopardize his ability to control the timing of his departure. Alito said the future is too uncertain to plan around.
“I think it’s too hard to predict,” he said. “It’s too hard to predict how for anybody, and particularly when you reach a certain age, what your situation will be a year from now, two years from now and so forth.”
“And it’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement,” he added.
A vacancy during President Donald Trump’s current term would give him a fourth opportunity to shape the Supreme Court. In his first term, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom were confirmed by the Senate.
In a July interview with Breitbart News, Trump said he was “certainly prepared” to fill a Supreme Court vacancy if one arose. He called Alito “one of the greatest of all time” and said he would welcome the chance to appoint someone in a similar mold, though he did not name a potential nominee.
“Well I think, you know, if you listen to people, there are three potential vacancies for various reasons, so I’m certainly prepared,” Trump told Breitbart News. “There are a lot of great people out there who would like to have that position.”
