Alito plans to stay on Supreme Court, even if Democrats regain Senate: Report

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito plans to remain on the court through at least next summer, even if Democrats regain majority control in the Senate from Republicans in November's midterm election, he said in a new report.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Alito, 76, has ruled out retiring during the brief lame-duck session of Congress after the election, when Republicans would still hold their Senate majority through early January even if they lose control for the next Congress.

If Democrats are the majority in the next Congress, they may block any Supreme Court nominee of President Donald Trump, a Republican.

"I intend to stick around through this term," Alito told Bloomberg, referring to the court's current term, which began Monday and which will end in late June or early July.

"I made that decision many months ago," said Alito, whose first book, "So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country," has just been published.

Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2005 by then-President George W. Bush, another Republican. Alito is one of six conservative justices on the nine-member court. Three of the other conservatives — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — were nominated by Trump.

Bloomberg reported that Alito, in the interview, acknowledged that the idea of retiring had crossed his mind.

But he also said, "I don't feel mentally or physically decrepit," according to the news outlet.

In a recent interview with CBS News, Alito said he considered retiring this year.

"It's something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term," he told CBS.

Democrats in the Senate are still stung by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocking the Senate from considering the nomination by then-President Barack Obama of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court in 2016. That block, which McConnell claimed was because there was not enough time to consider the nomination that was made in March, opened the way for Trump to appoint Gorsuch after he became president.

McConnell, R-Ky., after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020 also orchestrated the swift confirmation of Coney Barrett shortly before the presidential election that year, which ended with Trump's defeat and led to President Joe Biden, a Democrat, taking office in early 2021.