Earlier this morning, NPR published a story by longtime Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg which broke some big news. Justice Alito was retiring. Naturally, nearly the whole story was about the Dobbs decision.
Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court's opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, is retiring, the court announced Tuesday.
Alito was nominated to the court in 2005 by President George W. Bush to fill the seat vacated by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
In the history of the Supreme Court, the names of just a few justices are linked with a single very famous, or infamous, decision. Chief Justice John Marshall for his groundbreaking decision in1803, declaring that courts have the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. Chief Justice Roger Taney for his infamous decision in the Dred Scott case declaring that no African American, enslaved or free, could be a citizen of the United states, a decision that led in part to the Civil War; Chief Justice Earl Warren for his 1954 decision declaring racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. And in our own times, Alito's name is indelibly linked with the court's opinion overturning a half century's worth of decisions declaring that women have a right to abortion.
That story was up for about five minutes before it was replaced with an Editor's Note.
Editor's note: Earlier today, we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. Neither Alito nor the court's public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.
It turned out that Alito was not retiring today. How exactly did Totenberg make this blunder? She says she misheard an announcement.
Totenberg was reporting on the final day of the Supreme Court session on Tuesday. As she was leaving the court, Chief Justice John Roberts was announcing upcoming retirements. Totenberg misheard Roberts' statement.
NPR had the lengthy story about Alito's retirement already written, because that's what newsrooms do in anticipation of significant retirements and even deaths.
Totenberg spoke with both her intern, who was at the court with her, and NPR Executive Editor Krishnadev Calamur and told them what she heard. Calamur surfaced the story that NPR had previously prepared for the day Alito did announce his retirement and published it. The information was also broadcast on NPR's airwaves. NPR was offering special live coverage of the court's decision on the birthright citizenship case...
"I was looking to see who else was reporting it, and nobody was reporting it, and then, basically, we realized that it was not true," Calamur said. "She called and said, 'I made a mistake,' and we rushed to make a retraction."
Totenberg's blunder also set off a chain reaction at other media outlets, all of which also had to retract their stories.
NPR’s reporting was quickly cited elsewhere in the news media. Vox pulled a story originally titled “Justice Alito does one last favor for the Republican Party,” citing “inaccurate reporting from another outlet.” Bloomberg flashed the news to its terminal subscribers, attributing it to NPR, then sent more flashes within minutes flagging the Supreme Court’s denial and NPR’s retraction.
But I have seen a few people suggest this was a mistake in timing only, i.e. that Justice Alito may really be planning to retire and Totenberg simply let the cat out of the bag too early.
One source said that the faux scoop notably aligned with “scuttlebutt” among leading DC conservatives who watch the courts.
Another insider close to legal developments said that the article seemed to reflect that “they know it’s coming, just pushed [publish] too soon.”
A well-connected Republican operative noted that many people close to President Trump quietly hope Alito will retire — allowing Trump to replace one of his most closely aligned jurists with another like-minded judge before the opportunity passes.
We'll have to wait and see on that. If Alito really is planning to retire before the midterms, he'd need to do it fairly soon.
Finally, I can't help but notice that the NPR story is pretty vague about what Totenberg heard and how she came away with the idea Alito was retiring when no one else in the room did. Totenberg is 82 years old. I think that might help explain it. It may be time for Alito to think about retirement, but it may be time for Totenberg to think about it too.
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