‘Gravest, most unforgivable sin’: SCOTUS leak decried by court watchers

By Laurel Duggan

Supreme Court experts decried the unprecedented leak of the Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, in which justices reportedly voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court voted to overturn the landmark decision after oral arguments in December, according to a draft opinion leaked to Politico, but the vote is not final. Legal experts said the leak would damage the trust and functioning of the Court and was likely politically motivated.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley said the leak was likely part of a push to encourage liberal efforts to protect abortion rights through the Supreme Court or through the legislature.

“The most likely motivation is obviously to pressure the Court and push the legislation in Congress on a federal abortion law before the midterm elections. It will also likely renew the call for court packing,” Turley said. “This draft is from February and the majority can shift on such opinions. However, the act of leaking such a draft opinion ranks as an original sin for judicial ethics.”

Law professor Ilya Shapiro said the leak posed a risk to the basic functioning of the Court and, like Turley, believed the leak was likely motivated by left-wing goals.

“The leak is inexcusable and threatens the Court’s functioning,” Shapiro wrote. “The most plausible explanation is that it’s someone on the left engaged in civil disobedience—so yet again it’s those who bemoan the ‘loss of norms’ who break them. Cf. court-packing, attacking legitimacy, etc.”

“It’s impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff, SCOTUSblog wrote on Twitter. “This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin.”

The Supreme Court was not expected to issue a decision in the case for another two months, Politico reported.

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4 thoughts on “‘Gravest, most unforgivable sin’: SCOTUS leak decried by court watchers

  1. This breach of the Court’s decorum is as much a significant attack on one of the three branches of govt as was the “insurrection” of Jan. 6 and deserves to be treated equally. It was a carefully orchestrated move as part of “Operation Change the Subject” to deflect media and popular attention away from the disastrous policies being perpetrated by democrats in D.C. The “leaker” is looking forward to a lucrative contract with CNN.

  2. The leak is all about making the midterm elections a one topic issue. With the help of the media the narrative is if you believe in a woman’s choice for healthcare you must vote for democrats because all Republicans want to ban abortion. They want people to ignore all the other issues important to the country.

  3. A Democrat law clerk likely was asked to leak the draft opinion, as soon as it was written, to give Democrats a head start to out their grievances, greatly magnified by the US Media.

    US woman always had the RIGHT to have an abortion.
    The US Constitution does not mention it, ergo, does not abridge it.

    However, US women do not have a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT to have the federal government PAY for the abortion procedure, plus pay for the pre-abortion and after abortion care.

    Private volunteer organizations need to hold collections to finance abortions for needy people.

    Also, the minimum wage should be increased to about $15/h, to ensure there will be fewer needy people.

    • Totally…all this means is it goes back to the states as it was before. The states can then decide how to implement their rules and statutes.

      The Democrat Party loyalists are officially bat– crazy have lost their collective mind and frighteningly unhinged.

      The good news is donations did not pour in which seems to say this is not their hill to die on and a big chunk of Dems will vote MAGA as evidenced by yesterdays 20± winners sponsored by Donald Trump our next POTUS

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