by
Alex
Wong/Getty
Images)
The
Alito
retirement
watch
has
some
new
data
points
this
weekend,
and
they’re
worth
parsing
carefully,
because
not
all
of
them
are
saying
quite
the
same
thing.
Let’s
start
with
the
most
substantial:
CBS
News
chief
legal
correspondent
Jan
Crawford,
who
has
deep
sourcing
at
the
Supreme
Court,
is
reporting
that
sources
close
to
Justice
Samuel
Alito
confirm
that
he
is
not
planning
to
retire
this
year.
That’s
a
more
definitive
statement
than
what
kicked
off
this
news
cycle,
and
it’s
coming
from
a
reporter
whose
SCOTUS
sources
are
not
to
be
dismissed.
Crawford
also
adds
that
sources
close
to
Justice
Clarence
Thomas
tell
CBS
News
that
he
does
not
plan
to
step
down
either,
which
fair
enough,
Thomas’s
age
always
made
him
subject
to
the
retirement
speculation,
but
there
wasn’t
much
behind
it.
But
Crawford’s
piece
also
notes
that
Alito’s
plans
were
first
reported
by
Fox
News,
and
if
you
go
back
and
read
what
Fox’s
sources
actually
said,
it’s
worth
pausing
on
the
phrasing
for
a
moment.
The
original
Fox
quote:
Alito
“is
not
stepping
down
this
term
and
is
in
the
process
of
hiring
the
rest
of
his
clerks
for
the
next
term.”
Did
you
catch
it?
“Not
stepping
down
this
term.”
This
term
—
the
one
currently
in
progress,
the
one
that
ends
in
June.
The
one
that,
as
far
as
anyone
could
tell,
nobody
thought
he
was
going
to
step
down
in
the
middle
of.
The
retirement
speculation
we’ve
been
covering
here
at
Above
the
Law
for
months
has
always
been
about
whether
Alito
would
announce
before
the
next
term
begins
—
the
term
that
starts
in
October,
coincidentally
the
day
after
his
book
is
set
to
drop.
Crawford’s
reporting,
to
her
credit,
goes
further
and
addresses
the
whole
year,
not
just
the
current
term.
As
for
the
clerk-hiring
detail
the
Fox
report
offered
up
as
supporting
evidence,
well,
that’s
a
bit
less
dispositive
than
it
might
sound.
Hiring
clerks
for
next
term
does
not
foreclose
retirement.
Retired
justices
are
entitled
to
a
clerk
of
their
own,
and
the
others
typically
get
absorbed
by
active
justices
or
whoever
fills
the
vacancy.
It’s
worth
remembering
that
Justice
Kennedy
had
already
hired
his
four
clerks
for
the
following
term
when
he
announced
his
retirement
in
2018.
As
we
covered
at
the
time,
those
clerks
were
far
from
abandoned
—
they
still
ended
up
clerking
for
the
Court.
Hell,
clerking
for
a
retired
justice,
being
shared
among
active
ones,
is
an
established
practice
with
its
own
body
of
literature
at
this
point.
So,
while
there
is
certainly
more
information
about
Alito’s
potential
retirement
out
there,
whether
it
fully
puts
the
speculation
to
rest
is
another
question.
Prediction
markets
still
have
him
above
50
percent
to
step
down
before
year’s
end,
and
the
underlying
logic
Elie
Mystal
laid
out
in
The
Nation
—
the
midterm
headwinds,
the
book
tour
timing,
the
political
window
closing
—
hasn’t
changed.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter
@Kathryn1 or
Mastodon
@[email protected].