Legal Insurrection by Mary Chastain May 3, 2022
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/05/chief-justice-john-roberts-demands-investigation-calls-leak-betrayal-of-the-confidences-of-the-court/Chief Justice John Roberts Demands Investigation, Calls Leak ‘Betrayal of the Confidences of the Court’
“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.”SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts issued a scathing statement about the leak of Justice Alito’s opinion.
Roberts wrote:
To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.
We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce – permanent employees and law clerks alike – intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.
I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.
SCOTUS also said that the leaked opinion “does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.” The justices pass around “draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court’s confidential deliberative work.”
