Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was taken to the hospital last month when he fell ill during a dinner in his honor at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court said on Friday.
The court did not disclose the event at the time. Justice Alito was treated for dehydration and returned home to Virginia that evening as previously planned, said the spokeswoman, Patricia McCabe.
“Out of an abundance of caution, he agreed with his security detail’s recommendation to see a physician before the three-hour drive home. After that examination and the administration of fluids for dehydration, he returned home that night,” Ms. McCabe said in a statement confirming the incident, which was first reported by CNN.
Justice Alito was examined by his own physician, the court said. He then returned to work on Monday following the Friday evening episode. In the weeks since the March 20 dinner, which was hosted by the conservative legal organization the Federalist Society, Justice Alito has participated in oral arguments and joined colleagues on the bench to announce opinions of the court.
He was an active questioner during a session on Wednesday, when the justices examined the legality of President Trump’s order to limit the guarantee of birthright citizenship.
Justice Alito, a nominee of President George W. Bush, joined the court nearly 20 years ago. He was initially closely aligned with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. but is now considered one of the court’s two most conservative members, along with Justice Clarence Thomas.
At 76, he is also is the second oldest justice after Justice Thomas, and the subject of intense speculation about whether he will retire in the coming months and give Mr. Trump an opportunity to name another justice to the bench. It would be Mr. Trump’s fourth nomination over his two terms.
Justice Alito’s brief trip to the hospital occurred after a daylong conference devoted to his two decades on the bench hosted by the Federalist Society at University of Pennsylvania Law School. The conference, entitled “An Examination of the Jurisprudence of Justice Alito,” featured the justice’s former law clerks, former colleagues from his time serving in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan administration and other federal judges.
Justice Alito did not attend the conference but was the honored guest that evening at a formal dinner attended by more than 100 people at the National Constitution Center.
Supreme Court justices are not required to release information about their health, and the disclosure practices of individual justices have varied. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died during Mr. Trump’s first term in office, was generally open about her medical issues, including several bouts of cancer.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in contrast, did not disclose his hospitalization in 2020 after he sustained a head injury from a fall until he was asked about it by The Washington Post.
Ann E. Marimow covers the Supreme Court for The Times from Washington.
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