Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed Friday he’s staying on the nation’s highest court, weeks after a swell of speculation about a possible retirement.
“Obviously, I’m here for another term,” Alito, 76, said in an interview published in The Wall Street Journal’s editorial section.
Discussion of Alito’s future hit a fever pitch in June, when a mistake by a veteran Supreme Court reporter at National Public Radio resulted in the erroneous publication of a previously prepared retirement story.
RGB stayed, so why wouldn’t he?
Not that I want him to. But there’s no reason for him to go without changing the face of the country and the world for the next 50 years.
From the Republican perspective, they’d want him to step down so Trump could appoint another younger judge who can lock in a conservative seat on the court for many more years to come.
Him staying runs the same risk as RGB staying: dying or being forced to retire early when a Democrat is in the White House, who would then nominate a less conservative judge.
It’s a small blessing that such a careless expression of ego is bipartisan so he too might be able to die when it will change the political composition of the court.