Every newsroom dreads one particular kind of mistake: publishing a story that simply isn’t true. When that story involves a sitting Supreme Court justice supposedly retiring, the embarrassment is magnified by about a thousand.
That’s exactly what happened Tuesday when NPR briefly published a report claiming that Justice Samuel Alito was stepping down from the Supreme Court. The article remained live for only a few minutes before it was pulled, but by then screenshots had already spread across social media, setting off a wave of speculation and confusion.
Nina Totenberg just spoke on “All Things Considered” and said her mistaken report about Alito retiring was a “rookie mistake.”
“It’s entirely on me. It’s not anybody else’s fault,” she said.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 30, 2026
The now-retracted article opened with a definitive statement: “Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, is retiring, the court announced Tuesday.”
There was just one problem.
Neither the Supreme Court nor Justice Alito had announced any such retirement.
Within minutes, NPR removed the story and replaced it with an editor’s note acknowledging the mistake.
“Earlier today, we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring,” the correction stated. “Neither Alito nor the court’s public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.”
This is, by the way, the second time Totenberg made major SCOTUS news because her reporting was confused and not adequately overseen: a story from her rocketed around the Internet during COVID that Gorsuch ignored a Roberts request to wear a mask on the bench, forcing Sotomayor…
— Patrick Brennan (@ptbrennan11) June 30, 2026
That explanation answered the obvious question—yes, the report was wrong—but it immediately raised another one.
How does a veteran news organization publish something that significant without confirming it first?
Some observers initially wondered whether NPR had accidentally released a pre-written article. News organizations often prepare advance stories for major events such as retirements, deaths, elections, or resignations so they can publish quickly if the news breaks. Because the article appeared polished and included background on Alito’s judicial record, speculation quickly spread that someone may have mistakenly hit the publish button too early.
NPR, however, offered a different explanation.
Editor-in-Chief Thomas Evans described the incident as a “misunderstanding” and said longtime Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg would explain what happened during All Things Considered. He also said Totenberg had personally apologized to Justice Alito.
When Totenberg addressed the mistake, she accepted full responsibility.
Reading from the apology she sent to Alito, she explained that after the Court finished announcing its opinions, she noticed people were still gathered inside the building. Curious, she asked someone what was happening.
Spoke with NPR’s Nina Totenberg about the birthright citizenship decision. The longtime SCOTUS reporter also cleared up what happened today with the story about Justice Alito retiring that was quickly retracted. @livenowfox pic.twitter.com/mSeRKVpYez
— Andy Mac (@ItsAndyMac_) June 30, 2026
According to Totenberg, the response she heard was “retirement announcements.”
She said she failed to hear the final “s” in “announcements” and mistakenly concluded that Justice Alito was retiring.
“I assumed something no reporter should ever do,” she wrote in her apology. “It was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism.”
It’s certainly an extraordinary explanation, particularly given Totenberg’s reputation as one of the country’s most experienced Supreme Court reporters. That experience is precisely why many people remain puzzled that such a consequential story was published without additional verification.
Questions also remain unanswered.
Neither Totenberg nor NPR’s public editor, Kelly McBride, explained why she specifically concluded it was Alito who was retiring or why the report was published before anyone sought confirmation from the Court itself. McBride acknowledged that editors relied heavily on Totenberg’s decades of experience, noting she has covered the Supreme Court for NPR since 1975.
