Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the subject of intensifying speculation about a potential retirement before the midterm elections, is not expected to leave the bench this year, sources close to the justice have told ABC News.
Alito, 76, has been hiring clerks for next term and intends to continue serving into at least 2027, the sources who have spoken to Alito told ABC.
The court’s most senior member – 77-year-old conservative Justice Clarence Thomas – is also expected to remain on the bench.
No, my point is that not all Conservative judges are the same. And, if you take the Constitution seriously, the President has a right to pick someone, and the Senate has a right to advise him on who they find acceptable, and their consent is a requirement. So this the way it was supposed to have worked all along.
Remember that Anthony Kennedy is a conservative, and he was nominated to the Court by Reagan. Yet, once the Court started to lurch to the Right he ended up being the swing vote. Regardless, though, he retired while Republicans could fully control his replacement.
You could argue Kennedy was a compromise choice, because the Senate was in control of Democrats at the time, and they had already rejected Robert Bork for the job. If Chuck could force a similar outcome, wouldn’t that be a good thing?