US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has acknowledged that he may have to reassess his decision to remain on the bench every year as he grows older.
Alito, 76, made the remarks in a rare interview with CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford, which is scheduled to air on Monday. The comments come months after a hospital visit that fuelled speculation about whether the conservative justice was considering retirement.
In a preview released by CBS, Alito said he had considered stepping down at the end of the Supreme Court term that concluded in June.
“I thought about” retiring, Alito said, explaining that “It’s something that I think someone at my age has to think about.”
He said he ultimately decided to remain in the position because he believed he could continue contributing to the court.
“But,” Alito continued, “I thought 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.”
Crawford asked whether that meant retirement was something he would reassess each year.
“So you’ll be considering this probably every year – rethinking it,” she said.
Alito replied: “Yeah, I think I have to.”
The question of Alito’s possible retirement has attracted particular political interest because Republicans currently control the US Senate, which would play a key role in confirming any replacement.
Asked whether he was undermining Republican hopes of securing another conservative justice by remaining on the court, Alito said the future was impossible to predict.
“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 – it’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement.”
Speculation about Alito’s future intensified after he fell ill at a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia on March 20 and was taken to hospital.
A Supreme Court spokesperson subsequently said Alito had been treated for dehydration. He returned to his Virginia home that night, as had been planned, and resumed his duties on March 23.
The episode nevertheless triggered renewed discussion about whether Alito might leave the court, particularly because his retirement could give President Donald Trump an opportunity to nominate a fourth justice.
Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett during his first presidency. Their appointments helped create a conservative majority on the nine-member court alongside Alito, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Thomas, 78, has also been the subject of speculation about a possible retirement, with progressive groups preparing for the possibility that he could step down while Trump is president.
Alito, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by former President George W. Bush in 2006, also discussed the personal consequences of his controversial 2022 ruling overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark decision that had recognised a federal constitutional right to abortion.
He said the ruling resulted in the loss of friendships as well as physical threats and harassment.
Alito argued that overturning Roe v Wade required courage from him and the four other justices who joined his opinion — Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett and Thomas.
The loss of friendships was “something you have to live with,” he said, because it is “part of the job that you are going to displease people by making decisions on controversial matters”.
“One side or the other is going to really dislike you because of the decision,” Alito said.
He described the threats and harassment he experienced as “quite disturbing”, warning that they represented “a danger for the courts and … others in public life”.
His concerns echoed comments made by Barrett and liberal Justice Elena Kagan during testimony before the US House in July, when both called for stronger security for Supreme Court justices amid increasing threats against them and their families.
One notable incident occurred in 2022 when a man carrying weapons and zip ties was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home after the leak of information that the Supreme Court was preparing to overturn Roe v Wade.
Alito also criticised what he described as “very harsh criticism” of the Supreme Court from Trump and former President Joe Biden, saying such attacks could be “quite damaging” to the institution.
He rejected suggestions that the Supreme Court had become a political institution, insisting that its responsibility was to interpret the Constitution and apply it to cases before the justices.
“We are not part of any political movement,” Alito said. “And we are not attempting to further any political agenda.”
The interview comes as Alito prepares to release his memoir, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country, which is scheduled for publication on Tuesday.
