Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has bent American law to his conservative vision with audacious conversions from minority dissents to majority opinions, but somehow he seems even grumpier than ever.
In his 20 years on the bench, the 75-year-old Alito has cast decisive conservative opinions and authored closely fought decisions on abortion, voting rights and religion, and all eyes will be on him in 2026 as the court considers upcoming cases on transgender rights, religious freedom and executive power, reported CNN.
"Alito will also likely be the most-watched justice for anyone wondering if President Donald Trump will soon get another vacancy to fill. Trump had three appointments to the nine-member bench in his first term," wrote CNN's Joan Biskupic. "Alito, 75, and Clarence Thomas, 77, are the eldest justices. Thomas, who was appointed in 1991 at the young age of 43 and is now the fifth-longest serving justice in U.S. history, has suggested that he has no intention of retiring while he is healthy."
"Alito, on the other hand, has pondered a possible retirement, according to people close to him," Biskupic added. "But he has not signaled any eagerness to leave."
The conservative justice's most consequential victory came with his 2022 Dobbs decision overturning nearly half a century of abortion precedent, but his pattern extends far beyond reproductive rights.
In recent months, Alito reversed his position on racial gerrymandering — moving from dissent in a 2017 North Carolina case to majority opinion in 2024's South Carolina decision, then weaponizing that new framework to uphold Texas's controversial Republican-drawn congressional map this month.
The transformation was audacious. Where Justice Elena Kagan once wrote that "the sorting of voters on the grounds of their race remains suspect," Alito instituted a new test granting state legislatures presumption of good faith and imposing higher burdens on civil rights challengers. When Kagan bristled at this reversal — noting "we have seen all this once before — except that it was in dissent" — Alito fired back with a separate opinion, unable to simply accept victory.
His combativeness extends throughout the courtroom. During oral arguments, Alito regularly grimaces, rolls his eyes, and interrupts lawyers mid-sentence. When one attorney asked to finish speaking, Alito later declared with visible impatience: "On that hypothetical, three or four sentences later.…" Other justices laughed, apparently accustomed to his barely concealed irritation.
Even past victories wound him. Nearly 16 years after Citizens United, Alito still feels compelled to defend the decision as "much maligned, I think unfairly maligned," referencing President Obama's 2010 State of the Union criticism — the moment Alito was caught on camera mouthing "not true" at the hyperbole.
Public scrutiny particularly galls him. When ProPublica investigated his luxury fishing trip with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, Alito preemptively published a Wall Street Journal op-ed. After the New York Times reported on controversial political flags at his family properties, Alito blamed his wife Martha-Ann: "My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not."
He told the Wall Street Journal in 2023: "I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year." Yet rather than ignore critics, he insists someone must defend the court — and apparently that someone is him.
Trump has signaled he wants Alito to remain on the bench, and Alito has emerged as Trump's strongest judicial defender, penning scalding dissents when other conservatives waver. When the court temporarily blocked Trump's Venezuelan deportation in April, Alito denounced the majority for issuing relief "literally in the middle of the night" without proper procedure.
As pending cases loom on transgender rights, religious freedom, and executive power, Alito's trajectory suggests a justice determined to reshape American jurisprudence according to his vision — and equally determined to punish anyone who questions his handiwork.
