Justice Samuel Alito has said he is thinking about stepping down, and that comment has already turned into a fight over who would get to replace him. Alito told CBS News that retirement was “something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term.” He is 76. Justice Clarence Thomas is 78. A day later, Senate Democrats told NBC News they would not approve any Supreme Court pick from President Donald Trump if they win back the majority. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tied that stance directly to the midterms. He said taking the chamber back is partly about stopping Trump from filling the high court and the lower courts. Schumer put it this way: “The bottom line is: One of the reasons we want to do everything we can to take back the Senate is not let Trump put such horrible justices – MAGA justices – on the Supreme Court and the lower courts.” Other Democrats in the same report described a similar line on nominees from this administration. Senators trade the Garland fight for a possible Alito vacancy Senator Ruben Gallego said the party should answer an earlier Republican bloc with one of its own. “No, we’ve got to do exactly what McConnell did to us,” Gallego said. He was pointing to Mitch McConnell’s 10-month hold on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, a delay that ended with Justice Neil Gorsuch on the court instead. A major reason why I’m running to serve South Carolina and why it’s so important to keep the Senate conservative this November. Should Justice Alito choose to retire next year, a Republican-majority Senate will be needed to vote and hopefully confirm a Supreme Court nominee… https://t.co/FechebdUYI— Darline Graham (@DarlineGrahamSC) October 3, 2026 Gallego also said, “I don’t think, you know, you want to go down that road.… But clearly, you know, McConnell and Trump used … their power, whatever you want to call it, to change the makeup of the courts. And I think we have to start moving it back.” His comments treated the old Garland fight as the model for a Democratic Senate. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said a nominee from this White House would have little chance of Democratic support. “Well, given the history of Trump nominees, I think it is slim to none that we would support a nominee from this administration,” Blumenthal said. He followed that with a second line: “Because we’ve seen this movie, we know how it ends, which is a politician in robes who is following Trump’s orders on most major questions.” Blumenthal framed the objection around how earlier Trump nominees have ruled on major questions. The court’s direction is also in play beyond confirmations, as conservative Supreme Court justices refused to stand with Trump over his mail voting overhaul. On the Republican side, Senator Darline Graham wrote on X last Friday that holding a conservative Senate is central to her run in South Carolina. “A major reason why I’m running to serve South Carolina and why it’s so important to keep the Senate conservative this November. Should Justice Alito choose to retire next year, a Republican-majority Senate will be needed to vote and hopefully confirm a Supreme Court nominee from President Trump,” she wrote. Graham added, “If Democrats control the Senate, they will not even allow a vote. And if they allow a vote, they will defeat a Trump-nominated candidate regardless of their qualifications.” Her post treated a possible Alito retirement next year as a reason to keep the majority in Republican hands. Questions of the court’s independence loom over the majority fight, as Donald Trump watches his Supreme Court picks vote against his tariffs.