In a stunning journalistic blunder, NPR briefly published a nearly 1,200 word article on Tuesday declaring that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was stepping down from the bench. The problem? It never happened.
The story, written by veteran Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg, appeared on NPR's homepage on the final day of the Court's term, just after several remaining opinions were handed down. It cited a supposed "court announcement" of Alito's retirement and included extensive biographical details about his tenure since being appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. Within minutes, as Trending Politics reported, the article vanished from NPR's website and was replaced with a retraction notice.
One version of the headline specifically referenced Alito as "Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, retires." The piece discussed his authorship of the landmark 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which struck down Roe v. Wade, along with his positions on other legal issues. All of it framed around an announcement that simply did not exist.
NPR replaced the article with a blunt 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 Editor-in-Chief Thomas Evans elaborated in a follow-up statement, attributing the fiasco to "a misunderstanding." He confirmed that Totenberg "incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired" and said the story was pulled as soon as the error was recognized. An on-air correction was broadcast, and Totenberg was scheduled to appear on All Things Considered that afternoon to explain what went wrong. Evans added that Totenberg had reached out to Justice Alito directly to apologize.
The Supreme Court was not amused. Public Information Officer Patricia McCabe issued a pointed response: "NPR's reporting regarding Justice Alito is inaccurate. And their reporting that there was any kind of court statement is inaccurate." In other words, the outlet fabricated a source that never existed, even if unintentionally.
So how does a major news organization publish a detailed, polished article about a retirement that never happened? The most likely explanation is that the piece was a pre-written draft, a common practice in newsrooms that prepare stories in advance for anticipated major events. These drafts are supposed to remain unpublished until the actual news breaks. Clearly, something went very wrong with that process.
Justice Alito has made no retirement announcement, and the Court has confirmed that none was ever issued. Every statement from both NPR and the Supreme Court makes clear that the story was entirely inaccurate and has been formally retracted.
For an outlet that positions itself as a gold standard of careful journalism, accidentally telling millions of people that a sitting Supreme Court justice retired is, to put it mildly, not a great look.
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