NPR retracts false report of Justice Alito retirement

A false report that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had retired triggered a brief but intense political uproar on Tuesday before being retracted. The erroneous story, published by NPR and later echoed by at least one other outlet, was corrected within hours after the Supreme Court's public information office and the news organization itself stated no such announcement had been made.

The article, written by NPR's veteran Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg, appeared on the network's website Tuesday morning. It stated that the 76-year-old justice, appointed by President George W. Bush, was stepping down. The report was quickly removed and replaced with an editor's note acknowledging the error. NPR's editor-in-chief, Tommy Evans, said the story was published due to a misunderstanding and that Totenberg had reached out to Alito with an apology.

A Supreme Court spokesman explicitly called the report inaccurate. The court's public information officer emphasized that no retirement announcement had been made, a point noted in a live discussion on SCOTUSblog, a site dedicated to Supreme Court coverage.

The mistaken report spread rapidly due to its significant political...