Alito, 76, is one of six conservative justices on the nine-person Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative lean wouldn’t change if Alito retired and Trump nominated a new justice. But Alito’s retirement would allow Trump to appoint a fourth justice to the court. Alito was nominated by then-President George W. Bush in the fall of 2005 and took his seat on the bench in January 2006.
Trump has lashed out at the Supreme Court for several rulings against him on controversial issues like his sweeping tariff policy and his challenge to birthright citizenship. Alito sided with Trump on those two issues.
The timing of a Supreme Court justice’s retirement is crucial because the party in power can change the court’s political leaning for decades.
It’s pretty trivial to cut the Supreme Court out of the loop. All you have to do is write into the language of a law that ruling on this law is outside the jurisdiction of SCOTUS. SCOTUS has original jurisdiction on a few issues, like issues involving disputes between states. But most of what it rules on are it’s jurisdiction simply because Congress hasn’t assigned the issue to any other court.