For eight months, the Supreme Court has said nothing about the leaker(s) of a draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, Republican lawmakers plan to poke the court during its probe of the security issue.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is in line to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee under the incoming Republican-led House, has made it clear he wants to get to the bottom of the situation, and an aide has confirmed that this is still a priority.
Attacks on pro-life crisis pregnancy centers number in the dozens, as do rallies outside the residences of Supreme Court justices and an attempt on Justice [Brent M.] Kavanaugh’s life. However, the House Judiciary Committee has yet to hold a hearing on this leak during the current Congress. “There was not even one hearing,” Mr. Jordan stated recently.
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After the unusual disclosure, protests persisted outside the houses of certain justices, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced an investigation, but there have been no public updates on the manhunt.
It was reported in September that Justice Elena Kagan had said an update would be forthcoming by the end of the month, but there has been no movement since then.
Carrie Severino, head of Judicial Crisis Network and a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, stated, “The whole process has been incredibly confusing.”
Ms. Severino suggested that, during a hearing in the upcoming Congress on funding requirements of the judiciary, Republican leaders on the House Judiciary Committee could question some of the justices about the leak inquiry.
She suggested that this be the time when members of the public might ask questions of the judges: “Once a year a chosen number of the justices come and testify about the budget needs of the judicial branches.”
Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to head the inquiry into the leak in the days following the incident in May. Ms. Curley, a former Army lawyer and colonel in charge of the court’s grounds and security, had been on the job for less than a year when she was given the responsibility of conducting the investigation.
However, neither the chief justice nor Ms. Curley have provided an update through the court’s official channels. In addition to the who-done-it conjecture, legal experts have disagreed on whether or not the leak itself constituted a crime. Some have speculated that the leaker may have been committing theft of government property or obstruction of justice in an effort to influence the outcome of the case. Some have argued that the Supreme Court’s documents are not shielded by the same secrecy provisions that apply to other branches of government.
When word spread on May 2 that the Supreme Court was planning to reverse its decades-long precedent on abortion, many observers were shocked. In the 233-year history of the Supreme Court, this was the first time a whole draft opinion has been released.
The revelation infuriated pro-choice protestors, who began holding demonstrations outside the homes of conservative justices after publishing their locations online.
Justice Kavanaugh’s house is in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and an activist named Nicholas Roske actually made the trip from California to carry out an assassination plot against him. Mr. Roske is currently being held in federal detention.
Meanwhile, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s actual judgment delivered the following month closely mirrored the leaked draft opinion, hence the disclosure did not amount to misinformation.
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Following the publication of his landmark ruling, Justice Alito found himself the object of criticism, as one of his former clerks noted.
The Reverend Robert L. Schenck, head of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, was recently quoted in a piece in The New York Times claiming that Justice Alito had leaked the verdict in the 2014 case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores.
The accusation has been refuted by Justice Alito. According to Megan Wold, who worked as Justice Alito’s clerk in 2014 and 2015, “it struck me as a targeted campaign on Justice Alito.”
Those who disagree with his ruling on the abortion case are trying to get the people to change their minds, she added, but she doesn’t think it will work.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out who leaked the draft ruling, according to Mike Davis, head of the Article III Project and a former clerk to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
If not one of the nine justices themselves, then one of their four law clerks or two or three administrative aids, Mr. Davis said. “I highly doubt it’s one of the nine justices because they have to live with each other for the rest of their lives.” There aren’t very many people in the world. Probably one of the three liberal justices’ law clerks out of the dozen on staff. This isn’t rocket science; anyone can figure it out.
