Photo via New York Post

GOP Senate ready for lame duck Supreme Court confirmation — if Alito or Thomas change mind

Read the original at New York Post ↗
Cite

King, R. (2026, November 5). GOP Senate ready for lame duck Supreme Court confirmation — if Alito or Thomas change mind. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/11/05/us-news/gop-senate-ready-for-lame-duck-supreme-court-confirmation-if-alito-or-thomas-change-mind/

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

New York Post · collected 2026-11-05 · by Ryan King

Quick Summary

Senate Republicans are prepared to confirm a new Supreme Court justice during the lame-duck session if Justices Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas change their minds about retiring after recent election results. Both justices have told insiders they do not plan to retire, but some Republican senators like Chuck Grassley and Thom Tillis support rushing through a nominee if needed. Republicans worry that failing to secure a conservative majority now could leave them out of power for years, while Democrats project at least 54 Senate seats post-elections.
Written by AI on 2026-11-06, from this article's own text only.

AI analysis

Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.
Reading Leans right (beta estimate) Confidence high
Leaning: leans right for article 132801 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-11-06

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
16%
3 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
unclustered
not grouped into a story yet
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 17627 article(s) · 39 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 39 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Ryan King
125 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 It’s not fully clear what charges the leaker would face.
🔮 During the first 100 hours, Democrats will move to revive the Biden-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that lapsed last year, end the roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts Republicans enacted, quash Trump’s tariffs, and force Trump to end the war in Iran, aides told multiple outlets.
🔮 But both have told allies they will not step down early.
🔮 The House is expected to vote on an impeachment resolution against Hegseth that outgoing libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced in September when it gavels back into session next week.
🔮 Top of the agenda will be preventing the Dec. 11 government shutdown, attempting to pass the so-called “reconciliation 3.0” package to plus up the Pentagon’s budget, and confirming President Trump’s nominees.
🔮 WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff Wednesday that he will not vie to be minority leader in the next session of Congress after Republicans suffered a generational midterm wipeout, multiple sources on his team told The Post.
🔮 Democrat Abdul El-Sayed pulled off a stunning defeat over Republican Mike Rogers in the crucial Michigan Senate contest, shattering conventional wisdom that a hard-left candidate couldn’t win a purple battleground.
🔮 To cap off a difficult week for Miller, the congressman’s trial in his custody fight will kick off on Thursday.
🔮 “People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline.
🔮 The son of one popular Republican governor and the brother of another, the GOP nominee was accused by Pappas of trying to trick voters into thinking they were backing Sununu’s younger sibling, Chris, by distributing yard signs reading “Sununu Senator.” “Look, if people thought they were voting for me, my brother would be up by 30 points.
Also by Ryan King
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 125 articles by Ryan King →

Topics

Democrats Republicans Senate Supreme Court the Supreme Court

Subjects

Senate ORG · 6× Democrats NORP · 5× Republicans NORP · 5× Thomas PERSON · 5× Alito PERSON · 4× Supreme Court ORG · 4× the Supreme Court ORG · 3× Republican NORP · 2× The Post ORG · 2× Trump PERSON · 2×

Narrative

But many insiders were skeptical of that approach, fretting that it would ensure Democrats pack the high court in the future and raising process concerns. Republican appointed justices have had at least five seats on the Supreme Court since the 1970s, with a few brief exceptions, including the stretch of time following late Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016 at the age of 79.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-06
🔮 But both have told allies they will not step down early.

Claims (19 extracted, 3 hedged)

Senate Republicans are open to holding a lame duck Supreme Court confirmation if Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas change their mind about not retiring after the midterm blue tsunami. asserted
Alito → hold → tsunami
Republicans find themselves in a situation eerily similar to Democrats in 2014, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 81, a progressive darling, stayed on the Supreme Court after Republicans swept the Senate by stronger margins than expected. asserted
Republicans → find → margins
She died six years later, allowing President Trump to appoint her successor, paving the way for a big conservative majority on the high court, which allowed it to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Thomas, 78, and Alito, 76, are similarly revered among many conservatives. asserted
Thomas → die → conservatives
But both have told allies they will not step down early. asserted
they → tell → allies
“[They] have both been very clear that they don’t intend to retire this term. asserted
they → intend → ?
I don’t expect that decision to change,” one Supreme Court insider told The Post. asserted
insider → expect → Post
Many key Republicans, such as retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), have all signaled support for rushing through a nominee if needed. asserted
Republicans → retire → nominee
There hasn’t been a Supreme Court retirement during a lame-duck session after a midterm election since 1922, when Mahlon Pitney stepped down, data from the Congressional Research Service show. asserted
data → step → Service
Given the size of the Democrats’ victories in Senate races, Republicans could be locked out of power in the upper chamber into at least the 2030s. uncertain
Republicans → give → 2030s
“I wish they would have retired in the spring,” one GOP Senate advisor told The Post. asserted
advisor → wish → Post
“[The] country will face the consequences of them not retiring in the spring for many years. asserted
them → face → years
But pressuring Alito or Thomas to change course would likely be futile, according to that source. uncertain
pressuring → pressure → source
Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is set to be sworn in early next week, and there are uncertainties over how moderate Republican senators would handle a last-minute confirmation effort. asserted
senators → set → effort
“I don’t think it would work or anyone thinks there’s a real chance,” the advisor said of a hypothetical pressure campaign against Alito and Thomas. asserted
advisor → think → Alito
Thomas will become the longest-serving justice in May, 2028 if he stays on the high court. uncertain
he → become → court
Then there’s also the risk of pushing Democrats toward packing the Supreme Court if they take the White House in 2028. asserted
they → ’ → 2028
One idea floated by Sarah Isgur, a Supreme Court luminary, is the possibility of Trump attempting to nominate candidates to succeed Thomas and Alito without a vacancy and to get the Senate to confirm them. asserted
Senate → float → them
But many insiders were skeptical of that approach, fretting that it would ensure Democrats pack the high court in the future and raising process concerns. Republican appointed justices have had at least five seats on the Supreme Court since the 1970s, with a few brief exceptions, including the stretch of time following late Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016 at the age of 79. asserted
justices → fret → 79
Right now, Democrats are projected to get at least 54 Senate seats and are within striking distance of nabbing two more, depending on how the races in Alaska and Mississippi shake out. asserted
races → project → Alaska
💬Give feedback · no sign-in needed

No sign-in needed for now. Your note is sent without a name, so it cannot be answered.

🕘History 🎫Support