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Is Justice Samuel Alito getting ready to call it quits? A flurry of recent hints has prompted new speculation that the Supreme Court’s most reliably partisan conservative is eyeing the exits in advance of the 2026 midterms. On this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern sift through the clues, politics, and legacy management that may be driving Alito toward retirement. They also game out whom President Donald Trump might pick—among the many MAGA judges already campaigning for the seat—as the justice’s possible successor. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dahlia Lithwick: Our friend Elie Mystal wrote a great piece in the Nation saying he thinks Alito is going to step down. Our friends at Strict Scrutiny have also suggested as much. Mark, what’s your gossipy buzz telling you?

Mark Joseph Stern: I agree. And the first reason is the announcement of the justice’s forthcoming memoir, which is pompously titled So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country. Of course, justices do publish books on the bench. But there are some indications that this particular release will be a farewell postscript for Alito’s service. First, it’s coming out on Oct. 6, which is one day after the Supreme Court’s next term begins. As Elie noted, it is unusual for the justices to publish books in October because they like to promote their books, and they can’t do that when they’re stuck in D.C., hearing oral arguments. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Amy Coney Barrett all published recent books in early September—timing that makes sense because that’s when the public is starting to pay attention again. The new term is gearing up, but the justices are not stuck in Washington. They are still free to fly around the country, plugging their latest release. I think it’s pretty unlikely that Alito would drop his memoir on a date when he specifically cannot do that.

Second, Alito just........

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