For two years, liberal media celebrated like Samuel Alito's Supreme Court seat was already theirs.
This week, Fox News sources revealed what Alito has actually been doing while they counted his days.
What he just did makes every retirement prediction look like wishful thinking.
Senate Democrats Tried Every Pressure Tactic Available and Got Nothing
In 2023, liberal media outlets launched a coordinated ethics campaign against Justice Samuel Alito.
The goal was to manufacture enough political pressure to force a resignation – or at minimum, generate enough controversy to taint his opinions and build the case for impeachment.
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats sent Alito letter after letter demanding he recuse himself from January 6-related cases and appear before Congress to testify.
He declined.
Chief Justice John Roberts also declined – writing directly to Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin that compelling a sitting Supreme Court justice to testify before Congress raises serious separation of powers concerns.
Alito did not stop there.
He wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal explaining, in plain language, why the Senate had no authority over his recusal decisions and why the campaign against him was a political attack dressed up as an ethics inquiry.
Democrats pushed the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act.
It never became law.
They organized protests outside the justices' homes.
They demanded his resignation.
He kept ruling.
What the left never understood is that Samuel Alito has watched this playbook for four decades.
He watched Robert Bork get destroyed in 1987.
He watched Clarence Thomas endure a nationally televised humiliation in 1991 – and then watched Thomas serve thirty-five years and become arguably the most consequential conservative voice on the Court.
Alito learned the lesson.
The only way you lose is if you walk away.
Trump Called It and the Clerks Confirm It
Fox News sources are now telling a clear story: Alito is not stepping down this term and has already hired all four law clerks for the next.
Justices typically hire clerks two to three years in advance, but filling out the entire roster removes any ambiguity.
Alito is staying.
The retirement speculation picked up steam after Alito was treated for dehydration following a Federalist Society dinner – a detail liberal media seized on as evidence his health was failing.
Trump dismissed that framing directly.
Speaking with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo, Trump said Alito is in "very good physical health" and called him "one of the great justices of our time."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley told reporters the Republican caucus is "fully prepared" to process a nominee before the midterm elections if a seat opens.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune confirmed the votes are there and they would move quickly.
Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have been identified as top candidates if a vacancy did arise.
The machinery is ready.
Alito just told them he doesn't need it yet.
What Three Years of Democratic Strategy Actually Produced
For conservatives, there is a real calculation worth watching.
Alito is 76. Thomas is 77.
Every term either man stays on the bench is a term spent gambling that Republicans hold the Senate in the midterms and retain the White House in 2028.
That window is real, and conservatives should not pretend otherwise.
But here is the other side of that ledger.
Democrats threw every tool they had at Samuel Alito for three years and came back empty.
The ethics campaign failed – Alito didn't resign, didn't recuse, and published a Wall Street Journal op-ed explaining why he owed them nothing.
The term limits legislation went nowhere – no Senate floor vote, no House vote, dead on arrival.
The court packing plan died when Biden refused to pursue it even with a Democratic majority, and that moment is gone forever.
Dobbs stands. The administrative state rollback stands. The gun rights decisions stand. The race-based admissions cases stand.
Democrats threw a three-year pressure campaign at Samuel Alito and got back a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a man who still shows up to work on Mondays.
Sources:
- Alec Schemmel, Ashley Oliver, and Shannon Bream, "Alito Not Expected to Retire This Term, Cooling Supreme Court Vacancy Speculation: Sources," Fox News, April 17, 2026.
- Samuel Alito, Op-Ed, The Wall Street Journal, June 2023.
- Chief Justice John Roberts, Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee, May 2023.
