Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was examined by a physician last month after he “felt ill” during an event in Philadelphia, a spokeswoman for the court said Friday.
Alito’s security detail recommended that he see a doctor “out of an abundance of caution” before he took a three-hour drive home from an event on March 20, said Patricia McCabe, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court.
“After that examination and the administration of fluids for dehydration, he returned home that night, as previously planned,” McCabe said in a statement. The justice was later “thoroughly checked” by his own physician, McCabe said, and returned to work the following Monday for oral argument.
The incident was first reported Friday by CNN, which, citing unnamed sources, said Alito was attending a Federalist Society dinner when he fell ill. The report added that Alito was taken to a hospital.
The Federalist Society held an event that day in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school to discuss Alito’s work and judicial rulings. According to a listing for the event, speakers included some of Alito’s former law clerks.
Alito, 76, is not the first justice to have a medical issue be disclosed by a media report.
In June 2020, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suffered a fall at a Maryland country club. Roberts, then 65, was taken by ambulance to a hospital and received sutures, The Washington Post reported at the time.
A court spokeswoman said at the time that while Roberts had experienced seizures before — in 1993 and 2007 — doctors had ruled it out for the country club fall and instead believed he was dehydrated.
The news about Alito’s Philadelphia episode came as speculation about his possible retirement has ramped up since February, as observers noted that he will release his first book at the beginning of the next Supreme Court term in October.
Juggling book promotion with his busy court schedule could be difficult, observers say, so the timing may signal retirement plans.
Others have pointed to upcoming midterm elections in November, highlighting the slight possibility that Republicans will lose control over the Senate, which would make it difficult for President Donald Trump to push through a nominee with Alito’s strong conservative credentials.
If Alito wanted to retire, the thinking goes, he should do it while Republicans have control.
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