The Alito Court: A rare interview with the influential Supreme Court justice

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, 76, sat for a rare television interview in which he said he weighed retiring earlier this year but chose to stay on. He said age makes retirement a question to consider every term, and that he still believes he can contribute. Some conservatives had urged him to leave while Republicans control the Senate so President Trump could name a successor, but Alito said that was not a factor, since the political situation and a president's choices are too hard to predict, according to CBS News.

Alito is widely seen as the Court's conservative leader. Though Chief Justice John Roberts is most often in the majority, Alito's long-held positions on abortion, affirmative action, voting rights and religious liberty are now settled law. He wrote the 5-4 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which ended the constitutional right to abortion recognized in Roe v. Wade. Critics call him angry and vengeful, a portrait he dismissed as a caricature.

Interviewed in his hometown in New Jersey and at the Court, Alito credited his skill at assembling majorities to his youth there, when he played second base and led his school's student government and newspaper.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News →