NPR Mistakenly Reports Justice Alito Is Retiring from Supreme Court: ‘Published in Error’

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Tuesday morning, NPR reported that Justice Samuel Alito was retiring from the Supreme Court in an article that was soon taken down and replaced with an editor’s note saying it had been “published in error.”

The original article, archived online at the Wayback Machine here, was written by Nina Totenberg and headlined “Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, retires.” Totenberg, 82, is a veteran legal affairs correspondent who has been at NPR since 1975.

The archived version of the NPR homepage shows that the article held a top featured spot for the brief period it was live.

Screenshot via the Wayback Machine.

“Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, is retiring, the court announced Tuesday,” the article began, noting that the justice’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.”

Shortly after the article was published, a moderator in the live chat at SCOTUSblog that had been discussing the morning’s opinions noted that the court’s public information officer “just emphasized that the court has not made any announcement to that effect.”

The rest of the article discussed Alito’s opinions in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and other major cases, as well as reactions from legal experts and friends of the justice. The final paragraph included a small typo, quoting a Yale Law professor as saying that Alito “will forever be remembered” as the justice who “took sown Roe v. Wade” instead of “took down,” lending credence to the theory the article was a prewrite mistakenly published prematurely. It is common for media outlets to prewrite obituaries and retirement announcements for major news figures like Supreme Court justices.

A spokesperson for the court issued a statement denying that Alito was retiring, calling NPR’s report “inaccurate,” as reported by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein.

The article has been replaced with the following text:

Editor’s note: NPR retracts story

Editors Note: This story has been taken down. It was published in error.
June 30, 2026

Screenshot via NPR.

Later Tuesday morning, the byline was changed to “NPR Staff” and the editor’s note was updated again, with slightly longer text:

Editors Note: Earlier today we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. He has not announced his retirement and we have retracted the story.

Screenshot via NPR.

NPR Editor in Chief Tommy Evans issued a statement on the article and retraction, blaming a “misunderstanding” for the mistaken report. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik shared Evans’ statement in a tweet; NPR stopped posting on X in 2023 amid disputes with Elon Musk in the wake of his takeover of Twitter.

“Due to a misunderstanding, NPR’s Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired,” said Evans in the statement. “Neither Justice Alito nor the Supreme Court Public Information Office has announced his retirement. As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR’s website and an on-air correction was broadcast. We regret the error and any confusion this may have caused. This afternoon, Mrs. Totenberg will appear on All Things Considered to explain what happened. She has reached out to Justice Alito to apologize.”

This is a breaking news story and has been updated with additional content.

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