OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Nearly two months after someone leaked a draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court has provided an update on the unprecedented lapse in trust and security.
The decision, which was made official on Friday, did indeed stick pretty close to the original leaked draft, authored by Justice Samuel Alito and published by POLITICO.
But the identity of the leaker — or leakers — is still a mystery.
Shortly after the May 2 leak, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the marshal of the court to probe the incident and find out who was responsible for it. At the time, Roberts said the intent of the leak was to “undermine the integrity of our operations.”
“It will not succeed,” he pledged.
And true to that declaration, the decision did not change; the same justices who supported it in February, when Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, signed on to the official decision.
Roberts disagreed with overturning Roe but upholding the Dobbs portion of the decision involving a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks, then and on Friday.
But the leaker’s identity is still unknown, at least to the general public.
“The Daily Wire has repeatedly pressed the court as to what stage its investigation is at, more than 50 days after the leak, and whether the leaker has been identified. A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court has not addressed these requests for comment,” the outlet reported.
“This leak was intended to intimidate the justices and threaten the whole institution of the Court,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told The Daily Wire on Monday. “Now the Court is facing an all-out assault from the left with an assassination attempt on a sitting justice and elected Democrats declaring an entire branch of government ‘illegitimate.’”
“Thankfully, the leak did not change the outcome of this monumental case, but we need to get to the bottom of what happened and ensure it never does again,” he added.
The Daily Wire:
The court may be waiting for the end of the term to divulge the leaker’s identity — if that identity has been uncovered. Or the leaker might opt to go public themselves, suggested Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.
Blackman believes the court has “no clue who leaked the document,” telling The Daily Wire that “the Supreme Court Marshal is not equipped to perform a full investigation, including cyber forensic work.”
“Her job focuses on maintaining security at the Supreme Court building,” he explained. “The FBI would be fully staffed to perform a competent investigation, but due to the separation of powers, Chief Justice Roberts does not want the executive branch getting involved. It would be problematic for people who work for Biden interrogating the Justices and the law clerks.”
The Daily Wire reported that the FBI did not immediately note whether any of its agents were involved in the leak probe.
“I would hope that the Chief Justice is treating the investigation with great urgency given that the current clerks are nearly done with the term and he will soon lose whatever leverage he currently has,” Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino told the outlet.
She went on to suggest that “pressure to get to the bottom of the leak may wane” now that the court has issued its opinion on Dobbs.
“Unfortunately, a failure to identify and punish the culprit will only incentivize future leaks — serving to undermine the functioning of the Court and potentially endanger the justices,” she added.
To those points, the leak prompted attacks on Catholic churches, according to a Catholic Vote tracker, as well as dozens of pro-life pregnancy centers around the U.S.
Also, one man traveled across the country from California to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home with the original intention of assassinating him; he wound up getting cold feet and turned himself in to authorities where he admitted he sought to kill the justice.
The militant abortion group, Jane’s Revenge, has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks. Also, last week, the group allegedly issued a radical missive promising to continue violent attacks on pro-life clinics and organizations.
The FBI told The Daily Wire it is “investigating a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers and faith-based organizations across the country.”
