NPR retracted a bombshell report claiming Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito plans to retire.
A story written by award-winning legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg was published briefly Tuesday morning, reporting that Alito, whose time remaining on the nation’s highest court often generates speculation, planned to step down.
The 76-year-old justice is second in age only to his 77-year-old colleague Clarence Thomas. Legal scholars also point to the pair as the court’s most conservative jurists.
Totenberg reported that because Alito’s retirement was attributed to an “announcement” rather than sources, her story wasn’t as rigorously reviewed by fact-checkers as it would’ve otherwise been, according to the New York Times.
NPR’s website clarified in an editor’s note posted shortly after it published its erroneous report that there’s been no announcement that Alito is hanging up his robe and gavel.
“Earlier today, NPR erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. He has not announced his retirement and NPR has retracted the story,” the outlet wrote.
The Supreme Court couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, but a spokesperson told the Washington Post that no such statement had been issued.
Questions about Alito’s longevity made news in March after he became ill during a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia and required hospital care. He was administered fluids for dehydration and returned home that same night, according to CNN.
The New Jersey native joined the Supreme Court in January 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.
Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo asked President Trump in an April interview if he expects to replace aging Supreme Court justices like Alito.
“I don’t know — I’m prepared to do it,” Trump said.
Supreme Court nominees must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The President’s party currently controls Congress, but could lose seats in the November election. Trump nominated three of the court’s nine sitting justices to their posts: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
The court’s most recent appointee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was nominated by former President Joe Biden in 2022.