NPR Retracts Fake Bombshell On Samuel Alito Retirement

News admin June 30, 2026 0 Comments

NPR Retracts Fake Bombshell On Samuel Alito Retirement

NPR published and then retracted a fake story on Tuesday claiming conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is retiring.

The piece from the Left-leaning outlet, authored by longtime SCOTUS reporter Nina Totenberg, 82, claimed Alito was leaving the court right after justices handed down landmark cases on transgender athletes and birthright citizenship.

Published at 10:51 a.m. ET, the bogus article had the following lede: “Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, is retiring, the court announced Tuesday.”

However, the photo caption in NPR’s story said that Alito retired Friday.

Minutes later, social media erupted with the possibility that one of the most conservative justices in modern history was leaving the bench, and President Donald Trump would have the chance to nominate a fourth justice to the nation’s highest court months before the November midterm elections.

With no formal announcement from the high court, NPR retracted the entire story, leaving thousands of court watchers on edge with a terse 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.”

NPR released a statement later on Tuesday, attempting to clarify how the report was published.

“Due to a misunderstanding, NPR’s Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. Neither Justice Alito nor the Supreme Court Public Information Office has announced his retirement,” NPR Editor in Chief Tommy Evans said. “As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR’s website and an on-air correction was broadcast.”

Evans added that Totenberg has reached out to Alito to apologize for the fake news story, and she will appear on NPR’s show “All Things Considered” to “explain what happened.”

The fake news sparked strong reactions online.

“My life just flashed before my eyes,” one X user said.

“If anyone needs to retire, it is Nina Totenberg,” Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross added.

President Trump moved to end federal funding for NPR last year, saying the outlet has “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’” Congress also passed legislation cutting taxpayer dollars from NPR and PBS.

Alito, 76, has given no formal indication that he plans to step down, but a recent hospitalization and the growing possibility that Republicans could lose control of the Senate have heightened the stakes surrounding any potential vacancy.

GOP Senate leaders have said they’re ready to fill a vacancy before the midterm elections.

“That’s a contingency, I think, around here you always have to be prepared for,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters in April. “And if that were to happen, yes, we would be prepared to confirm.”

President Trump previously responded to speculation of a possible vacancy.

“It could be two, could be three, could be one. I don’t know, I’m prepared to do it,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “When you mention Alito, he’s a great justice.”