Sources close to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said on April 17, 2026, that the 76-year-old is not planning to retire this year, a development that immediately undercuts President Donald Trump’s hopes of another opening on the court. The same day, sources close to Justice Clarence Thomas said he does not plan to step down either.
The reporting means Trump will not be able to count on a chance to make his fourth nomination to the Supreme Court this year. Alito’s plans were first reported by, and the update lands just after Trump told Business’ Maria Bartiromo earlier this week that he was ready to name two or three new justices if vacancies opened up. “In theory, it’s two — you just read the statistics — it could be two, could be three, could be one,” he said. “I don’t know. I’m prepared to do it.”
Alito and Thomas are two of the court’s core conservative voices, and any departure from either justice would have carried immediate political weight. Thomas, 77, has served on the Supreme Court since 1991, while Alito has been on the bench since 2006. Trump was able to fill three seats during his first term, naming Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, and his latest remarks made clear he was still thinking about another round of appointments.
That expectation now runs into the practical reality of the court’s calendar. The justices still have major decisions ahead this spring on birthright citizenship, deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians, and late-arriving mail-in ballots, with rulings on those cases and other contentious matters due by late June or early July. Retirement speculation often builds as the term nears its end, but this round appears to have settled quickly: for now, the conservative bench is staying intact, and Trump’s chance to make a fourth nomination this year is off the table.
