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In a late-night social media post, President Donald Trump celebrated Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s decision to remain on the bench for another term.
Trump’s celebration of the 76-year-old conservative stalwart’s decision to put off retirement comes as the midterms raise the stakes over how long Republicans will retain the Senate majority needed to confirm any eventual successor.
“Great news for our Country! Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has announced that he is staying for another Term,” Trump wrote Monday night on Truth Social. “He is one of the Greatest of All Time. We are all lucky!”
Alito confirmed last week that he plans to remain on the nation’s highest court for its coming term, batting down months of speculation that he could retire while Trump is in the White House and Republicans still control the Senate.
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“Obviously, I’m here for another term,” Alito said in an interview published by The Wall Street Journal.
The Supreme Court’s next term begins in October and typically concludes with its final opinions in late June or early July. The justices are currently on their summer recess.
Alito and fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, have faced some calls from conservatives to step down, which would give Trump one potential last chance to appoint a fourth Supreme Court justice to the lifetime post.
Trump appointed three others during his first term in office – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – giving the court a 6-3 conservative majority that has issued a series of major rulings since 2020.
“It’s not pleasant, in the sense that it’s a reminder of mortality,” Alito told the Journal about the calls to retire. “It’s like, what are those vultures doing up there? They are flying around. But it goes with life tenure.”
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The window to replace one of the court’s oldest conservative justices with a younger jurist who could potentially remain on the bench for decades might narrow considerably after November.
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate advantage, counting the two independents who caucus with Democrats on the Democratic side. Because Supreme Court nominees require Senate confirmation, a Democratic takeover in the 2026 midterms could effectively prevent Trump from replacing Alito — or any other justice — with a nominee opposed by a unified Democratic majority.
Democrats would need a net gain of four seats to reach 51 and take outright control, with Republican Vice President JD Vance otherwise positioned to break a 50-50 tie.
That reality places unusual weight on Alito’s decision to remain.
Alito was born April 1, 1950, making him 76, and has served on the Supreme Court since January 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush. He is one of the court’s most consistently conservative members.
The court has disclosed relatively little about Alito’s health over the years, signaling he remains in good health. Alito did have a minor incident while attending a Federalist Society event in Philadelphia on March 20, being treated for dehydration after his security detail urged him to see a doctor rather than make the roughly three-hour drive home.
He was released that night, was subsequently examined by his physician and returned to work the following Monday.
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Questions about Alito’s longevity on the bench and decision to stay introduces another potential inflection point: the 2028 presidential election.
If the White House changes parties in 2028, Alito remaining beyond Trump’s term carries the risk for conservatives that a future Democratic president could nominate his successor the following January.
That outcome is far from predetermined, and subject to whatever party controls the Senate, but the modern political era has repeatedly seen the White House swing between parties.
In six of the seven elections since 1988 that produced a new president, control of the presidency also changed parties — the lone exception being Republican George H.W. Bush’s victory after Ronald Reagan in 1988. That run includes the succession from Bush to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, Joe Biden and back to Trump.
For Trump, the stakes surrounding an aging Supreme Court justice are hardly theoretical.
He confronted perhaps the most consequential Supreme Court vacancy of his first presidency on Sept. 18, 2020, when reporters informed him on an airport tarmac after a campaign rally in Bemidji, Minnesota, that liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died.
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“She just died? Wow. I didn’t know that,” Trump said before praising Ginsburg as an “amazing woman” who had led an “amazing life.”
The timing immediately transformed the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Trump moved quickly to select then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ginsburg – just eight days after her death – and the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Barrett on Oct. 26, 2020, by a 52-48 vote, just 27 days after her nomination, eight days before Election Day.
Landing three new justices during a single four-year presidential term was a historically rare achievement. Not since Richard Nixon’s first term had a president placed at least three new members on the Supreme Court in one term. Nixon ultimately placed four — Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist — on the court before beginning his second term.
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Trump’s three appointments have continued to shape some of the most consequential rulings of his second administration, making the future of Alito’s seat particularly significant for both parties.
For now, Alito has made his choice to stay active, with Trump is cheering him on.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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