Is Justice Samuel Alito getting ready to call it quits? A flurry of recent hints has prompted new speculation that the Supreme Court's most reliably partisan conservative is eyeing the exits in advance of the 2026 midterms. On this week's Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern sift through the clues, politics, and legacy management that may be driving Alito toward retirement.
In his ruling to deny the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction to bar the state court system from enforcing the retirement mandates, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank said that, for New York's new equal rights amendment to apply to their case, the judges would need to show that the age limits violate a civil right of theirs. The judges have not shown, nor is the Court aware of, a civil right consisting of the ability to remain a judge, Frank wrote.