President Donald Trump said he's ready to nominate up to three new Supreme Court justices if vacancies emerge.
No justices have announced their intent to retire from their lifetime posts on the nation's highest court.
Currently, the court's oldest justices are Samuel Alito, 76, and Clarence Thomas, 77.
Recent talks about retirement come as Alito and Thomas draw closer to 80 years old, the average age of retirement for Supreme Court justices.
Further speculation about a Supreme Court vacancy emerged after Alito was hospitalized and treated for dehydration during an event last month. Alito was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2005.
While Trump said it would be an "honor" to nominate the next person to serve on the nation's highest court, he described Alito as one of the "greatest justices" of all time.
"Justice Alito is an unbelievable justice and a brilliant justice, and he gets the country," Trump said.
If Alito retired in the summer, it would allow Trump to name a similarly conservative but much younger replacement who would likely be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate.
Justice Clarence Thomas, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, has served on the court since 1991. His nearly 35-year tenure makes him the second-longest serving justice in history.
The oldest person to serve on the Supreme Court was Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who was 90 years old when he retired after serving the court from 1902 to 1932.
The timing of a justice's retirement has become an important factor to consider, alongside age and health, according to legal scholars. Older conservative justices who remain on the court gamble on the possibility of Democrats flipping the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections in November, as well as the possibility that a Democrat will be elected to the White House two years later.
Trump said during the interview that he has a shortlist of people he would nominate to the Supreme Court, but also acknowledged that there might not be an opening by the end of the year. The president did not disclose names for any of his picks.
Any vacancy would give Trump the opportunity to make a fourth appointment to the court. During his first term in the White House, Trump made three appointments, giving the Supreme Court its 6-3 conservative majority.
Richard Nixon, a Republican who served from 1969 to 1974, was the last president to appoint four justices.