In rare interviews, Alito defends court’s independence, reflects on impact of Dobbs leak

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In interviews at the start of the new Supreme Court term, Justice Samuel Alito expressed concern about what he called “a concerted effort to intimidate the court.”

In rare interviews that coincided with the beginning of the Supreme Court’s 2026-2027 term, and the release of his first book, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country,” Alito pushed back on criticism of the court from both the Biden and Trump administrations and reiterated his belief in its function as a pillar of a constitutional system.

“I think it’s damaging. I think it can be quite damaging. There’s been a great change in what presidents have said about the court when they are unhappy about our decisions,” he told CBS in an interview that aired over two days, Oct. 4 and 5, regarding some of the rhetoric from elected officials about the court. “But the criticism of the court — I want to be even-handed on this. The criticism of the court … by President Biden and his administration was very harsh. And President Trump has been very harsh.”

More broadly, Alito told Fox in an interview that aired Oct. 4, “There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court — and justices on the court — to try to influence us to decide cases differently from the way in which we have been deciding them and I am concerned about the future of the court.”

“I think it’s an important institution and it has not always done the right thing, but I think on the whole it has been fundamental in protecting our constitutional structure and the rights that all Americans enjoy,” he said.

During its 2025-2026 term, the high court issued major rulings striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s sweeping tariff policy, but also permitting the Trump administration to reimplement a policy of turning away asylum-seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border before they enter the country, known as “metering,” and to end a temporary designation that shielded eligible Haitian and Syrian immigrants living in the U.S. from deportation.

The new term began as Trump criticized the justices for ruling against his position in some of those cases. In an interview with Time published Oct. 1, Trump lashed out about the cases he saw as losses, and said he regretted selecting the three justices he nominated to the high court during his first term.

But Alito, a Catholic who is seen as one of the court’s key conservatives, appeared undeterred.

“I put all of that out of my mind. I trust that my colleagues put all of that out of their minds,” Alito told Fox News Sunday in response to a question about the president’s comments.

Alito was the author of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade (1973) — which established a constitutional right to abortion nationwide — and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) — which reaffirmed Roe.

A leak of the draft of the Dobbs decision in May 2022 is seen as the most significant breach of the court’s confidentiality in its history.

Alito told CBS he was “stunned” by the leak.

“It was quite a shock,” Alito said. “But within a relatively short period of time, the thought occurred to me, and I think to the others in the majority, that this would endanger us. And it made us targets for assassination.”

In the years since the leak, multiple threat assessments by law enforcement and the justices themselves have discussed a heightened threat environment for the judiciary, including a conviction of an individual who traveled to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home with plans to assassinate him.

Dobbs was not the only controversial ruling in that time, however, as the court also issued major rulings on topics including immigration and presidential power.

The Dobbs leak, Alito told CBS, “has cast a pall over the court to a degree because we don’t know who was responsible for that.”

“It’s something that I don’t think we can get out of our minds,” he said.

In 2023, the Supreme Court said that a monthslong investigation by its marshal failed to discover the source of the leak. But Alito said he had a suspicion about the identity of the leaker.

“I do have an opinion,” he told Fox. “But the evidence available at this time is not strong enough for the court or for me to say this is the person who was responsible.”

CBS asked Alito about Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in Dobbs, arguing the court should reconsider additional precedent, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. In response, Alito said he saw the cases as different, and Obergefell is more settled law.

“I did not think that there was any realistic prospect that it would be overruled because of the passage of time and the developments in the country,” he said of Obergefell.

In response to speculation about his future on the court and whether he plans to retire, Alito, 76, told CBS, “It’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term.”

“I think I can still make a contribution,” he said. “And it’s hard to give up the opportunity to do something that I think will be good for the Constitution and good for the country as long as I’m able to do it.”

Some conservatives have called for Alito to retire while Republicans have control of the Senate, and to allow Trump to nominate his replacement. But Alito said that would not factor into his decision.

“It’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be,” he said, “and what any president might do with respect to a replacement.”

In an interview with USA Today published Oct. 6, Alito also acknowledged an erroneous and later retracted report by NPR that he was retiring.

“I was amused and puzzled,” Alito said. “I wondered what had led to the erroneous report. And when the error was corrected, I wondered how many people were crest-fallen.”

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