Photo: Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images
While there are always rumors about Supreme Court justices retiring, especially after releasing their final decisions of the term, it was a genuine surprise when NPR reported “Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, retires.”
It was an even bigger surprise, minutes later, when it became clear the report was a mistake. The folks at SCOTUSblog — who were still running a liveblog about this morning’s decisions — expressed their own skepticism about the report. Then they confirmed that NPR chief Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg, who has previously broken stories of justices’ retirements, said it was an error.
Not long after, NPR took down the article and posted a retraction in its place. NPR editor-in-chief Tommy Evans soon released a statement saying Totenberg “incorrectly reported” the news and has reached out to Alito to apologize. He also said she would “explain what happened” on All Things Considered.
NPR public editor Kelly McBride later wrote that Totenberg “misheard an announcement about retirements,” calling the false report “a result of an honest mistake and a rush to publish” but something they could and should have caught:
Totenberg was reporting on the final day of the Supreme Court session on Tuesday. As she was leaving the court, Chief Justice John Roberts was announcing upcoming retirements. Totenberg misheard Roberts’ statement.
NPR had the lengthy story about Alito’s retirement already written, because that’s what newsrooms do in anticipation of significant retirements and even deaths.
Totenberg spoke with both her intern, who was at the court with her, and NPR Executive Editor Krishnadev Calamur and told them what she heard. Calamur surfaced the story that NPR had previously prepared for the day Alito did announce his retirement and published it. The information was also broadcast on NPR’s airwaves.
McBride said the post was only live for about five minutes before they took it down and corrected it. Calamur told McBride he had no reason to doubt Totenberg’s reporting:
“I was looking to see who else was reporting it, and nobody was reporting it, and then, basically, we realized that it was not true,” Calamur said. “She called and said, ‘I made a mistake,’ and we rushed to make a retraction.”
Totenberg is one of the most experienced reporters covering the Supreme Court. She’s done so for NPR since 1975. Her status contributed to the error.
“She’s the preeminent Supreme Court reporter in the courtroom,” Calamur said. “So I’m assuming that’s what she heard. … She’s in the room. It’s like when we report opinions. I’m not waiting to see what the Times is reporting. It’s when Nina says, here’s what happened, and we do it. That’s the trust you build up.”
Calamur also said that “this sort of shit should not happen” and that he would review NPR’s process for breaking-news posts. Totenberg, appearing on All Things Considered, said she told Alito it was “the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years of journalism” and insisted that “this is on me and only me.”
The New York Times’s Benjamin Mullin reports that the story did clear an editorial “backstop”:
The article went through an extra layer of editing, known at NPR as “the backstop,” according to two people familiar with the process. NPR added that layer in 2024 as a final line of defense against errors. But because the article cited an announcement, rather than confidential sources, the network did not take additional steps to verify the accuracy of the information, the people said.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024 that Alito had no plans to retire. But if a conservative justice were to retire, they’d presumably do so while a Republican has control of the Senate, as is the case now but may not be this time next year. That’s why the sight of Clarence Thomas strolling through the Capitol ignited speculation on Monday.
This post has been updated.
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