President Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices during his first term (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett), which is the most appointments to the high court by any president since Ronald Reagan. Trump could potentially get to appoint a fourth justice if the rumor mill is accurate. There is much speculation that Justice Samuel Alito is considering retirement. Supreme Court watchers are trying to read the tea leaves for a possible retirement annoucement by Justice Samuel Alito. https://t.co/JCMpL2RCTU — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 17, 2026 USA TODAY shared further: And if Alito wants to step down while Republicans control the Senate, he may not want to gamble on this year’s midterm elections. Republicans are expected to have a much easier time retaining the Senate than the House, but a loss can’t be ruled out. That would make it difficult for Trump to confirm a successor. Because Senate Republicans may not want to hold a confirmation hearing during the fall of an election year, Alito could announce in the next few weeks that he will step down at the end of the term, Strict Scrutiny co-host Kate Shaw speculated. Finally, Alito is coming out with a book in October, right as the court will be starting a new term. Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University who writes about the court on Substack, called the publication date “a pretty big tell since one can’t exactly go on a book tour during the first argument session of the term.” Alito is 75 years old, the second-oldest justice on the high court. “That is usually a very good milestone on which to retire,” said New York University law professor Melissa Murray, according to USA TODAY. However, court watcher and lawyer David Lat speculated the book release could mean that Alito plans to remain at the high court. Lat writes in Original Jurisdiction: Speaking of justices and their books, we now know more about Justice Samuel Alito’s book. Its title is So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country, and its release date is October 6, 2026. That’s one day after the start of October Term 2026—leading my former colleague Elie Mystal to predict that Justice Alito will be retired by then, since the justice “thinks he’ll be free to run around the country promoting” his book (instead of doing his day job). But could the date cut the other way? Book buyers are much more interested in what a current justice has to say, as opposed to a retired one—reflected in how the memoirs of Justice Jackson and Justice Amy Coney Barrett became bestsellers, while the memoir of retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not—and I could see Justice Alito not wanting to step down until well after publication.