A 'mischievous' Alito move could result in a November 'heist': analysis

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito could use a retirement announcement to interfere in the midterm elections, a new analysis warns.

A new analysis by Off Message writer Brian Beutler found a risk that Alito could use an unconventional retirement announcement to influence the outcome of November's election. Beutler called it "LEGAL judicial election interference, and another heist."

CBS News confirmed in April that neither Alito nor Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, plans to retire — leaving President Donald Trump without a fourth Supreme Court nomination before the midterms.

Alito is 76, and both men want younger conservative replacements, Beutler noted. But a Democratic Senate would slam that door shut for years, Beutler warned.

Democrats could "embargo Trump's judicial nominees — deny them fair hearings just as Republicans denied a fair hearing to Merrick Garland in 2016," Beutler wrote.

Alito and Thomas would "have to hang on for dear life, well into their eighties," Beutler wrote — through 2032 at the earliest.

If both justices retired or died under a Democratic president and Senate, the court's 6-3 conservative supermajority would flip to a 5-4 liberal majority, Beutler noted.

Republicans proved they will break any norm to prevent that outcome, Beutler noted, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020 — then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rammed through Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation in weeks, just days before Trump lost re-election.

"The Senate GOP knows how to get a Supreme Court confirmation done in less than six weeks," Beutler noted — shorter than the lame-duck window after November's vote.

So if Democrats win and Republicans can't overturn the results, Beutler wrote, "either man or both men can retire in November, and give way to 40-year-old MAGA justices before Christmas."

If Republicans hold the Senate, Thomas could wait. He is already the second-longest-serving justice in history, per the Brennan Center, and could yet claim the record.

But Beutler predicted the justices could "be even more mischievous" — going straight into electoral interference.

"What if Alito thought he could time his retirement announcement to help Republicans get out the vote?" Beutler asked.