Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is fueling speculation he plans to retire before the 2026 midterm elections – because of the unusual timing of his upcoming book.
Alito, 75, has a memoir titled “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country” scheduled for release October 6, 2026—the day after the Supreme Court’s new term begins.
The timing has legal experts convinced Alito is preparing to step down.
“That is usually a very good milestone on which to retire,” Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University, said of Alito’s recent 20-year anniversary on the high court.
Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, called the October book release date “a pretty big tell since one can’t exactly go on a book tour during the first argument session of the term.”
Justices typically release books in September or May when they have time to promote them. September makes sense because the justices are free to travel before the new term starts. May works because the court is no longer hearing oral arguments and justices are just writing opinions.
Coney Barrett released her book September 9, 2025. Neil Gorsuch published his May 5, 2025. Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor also released their books in early September.
October is one of the busiest months on the Supreme Court calendar.
Alito reached the 20-year mark on the Supreme Court at the end of January. He was nominated by former President George W. Bush and joined the court in January 2006.
The average Supreme Court justice serves around 16 years. Only a fraction of justices in the court’s history have served 20 years or more.
Republicans currently control the Senate, but midterm elections historically favor the party not in the White House. Democrats could potentially take control of the Senate in November, which would complicate or block a Trump Supreme Court nomination.
“The publication date of the book makes me think that Alito is planning to retire at the end of the Supreme Court’s current term, in July,” Elie Mystal wrote in The Nation. “That would give Trump, and the Republicans who still control the Senate, time to appoint and confirm his replacement before the midterm elections.”
A retirement by Alito would give Trump the opportunity to nominate a fourth Supreme Court justice. Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.
It would also allow Trump to appoint a younger conservative justice who would serve on the court for decades, cementing the conservative majority for a generation.
Alito is the second-oldest justice on the Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas is 77 and has served since 1991. There are fewer indications Thomas is considering retirement.
Legal scholar Michael Dorf wrote that Alito “would almost certainly like to be replaced by a like-minded jurist, which cannot be guaranteed after the 2026 midterm election.”
“In the event that Democrats take control of the Senate, they might one-up Republicans who held open the seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death,” Dorf wrote. “Hence, by retiring well in advance of the midterms, Justice Alito can ensure that his seat goes to a sympatico but much younger version of himself.”
Alito has made no public statements about his plans.