Key facts
- Schumer told The Associated Press: "The bottom line is we're not going to allow a right-winger on the court."
- Schumer said Democrats are not putting a blanket hold on Trump's judicial nominees, urging well-qualified picks.
- The article says a vacancy could last many months if a justice retires or dies before Trump leaves office in January 2029.
- Alito is 76 and Thomas is 78, per the report, which cites pressure to retire before Republicans lose the Senate.
- Alito has told friends he does not plan to give up his job before the end of the year, The New York Times reported.
- McConnell kept Scalia's seat vacant for nearly a year; the Senate confirmed Gorsuch in April 2017.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would block any "right-winger" President Trump tries to place on the Supreme Court once they take control of the Senate, in an interview with The Associated Press reported on November 6, 2026.
"The bottom line is we're not going to allow a right-winger on the court," Schumer said, according to the report. The article says the stance raises the prospect of a vacancy lasting many months if a justice retires or dies before Trump leaves office in January 2029.
The report says the position could pressure Justice Samuel Alito, 76, or Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, to announce retirement in the next several weeks, before Republicans lose control of the Senate. Court watchers generally think Alito is more likely to step down, though he has told friends he does not plan to give up his job before the end of the year, according to The New York Times.
Schumer told Semafor weeks before the midterm elections that Trump nominees would have a hard time being confirmed in a Democratic-controlled Senate, saying few would get through if they were as poor as the president's current picks. He told reporters on Wednesday that Democrats are not imposing a blanket hold on Trump's judicial nominees and urged the president to advance judges rated well qualified.
The article ties the warning to 2016, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell kept Antonin Scalia's seat vacant for nearly a year after the justice's death in February 2016. The Senate confirmed Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch to the seat in April 2017.