One of the GOP's favorite Supreme Court justices has the party backed into a corner ahead of the midterm elections, according to one legal expert.
Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst and a former federal prosecutor, argued in a new essay for the Substack "Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara" that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's decision not to retire ahead of the midterms could be a costly mistake for the GOP. The 76-year-old justice could have stepped down and let the GOP fill his seat with a much younger nominee, Honig argued. Instead, Alito's reluctance to retire sets up a likely showdown where Democrats refuse to even contemplate supporting a nominee to replace him, similar to how Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blocked former President Barack Obama from nominating someone to fill former Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg's seat.
"Notwithstanding the potential roadblock ahead, Alito claims that politics will play no role in his retirement decision," Honig wrote.
"But nobody with any sense of human nature and recent history believes that," he added. "Alito is notorious for being ideologically combative. More than any other recent justice, he has picked political fights with prominent Democrats and his liberal colleagues on the Court, and he has aimed vitriol at the media and anyone else who questions his motives or decisions. There’s no reason to conclude Alito is any less political or calculating than his recent predecessors."
Honig warned that Alito's decision could haunt the GOP going forward.
"To this day, Democrats lament Ginsburg’s decision not to retire while Obama held office, which would have ensured a liberal successor," Honig wrote. "Instead, she died towards the very end of Trump’s first term, and Barrett took her seat. Republicans could similarly rue Alito’s decision for decades to come."
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