The Supreme Court is suddenly leaking like a sieve -- and it's truly stunning

[Nevilledog]

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MSNBC
@MSNBC
.@MaddowBlog: There are occasional peeks behind the Supreme Court’s curtain, but three leaks in nine days about a historically significant pending case is extraordinary.

msnbc.com
The Supreme Court is suddenly leaking like a sieve — and it's truly stunning
There are occasional peeks behind the Supreme Court’s curtain, but three leaks in nine days about a historically significant pending case is extraordinary.
9:30 AM · May 11, 2022

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/supreme-court-springs-brand-new-leak-roe-balance-rcna28290?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

The original leak came nine days ago. On Monday, May 2, Politico reported on a leaked draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito leaving little doubt that Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices were prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Five days later, there was another leak. On Saturday, May 7, The Washington Post reported on the justices’ private deliberations surrounding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the pending abortion case. According to the article, Chief Justice John Roberts proposed a middle path of sorts — he’d uphold the Mississippi anti-abortion law, but leave the Roe precedent in place — but he found no takers.

The reporting added that, as of last week, “the majority of five justices to strike Roe remains intact.”

This morning, the high court sprang yet another leak. Politico reported:

Justice Samuel Alito’s sweeping and blunt draft majority opinion from February overturning Roe remains the court’s only circulated draft in the pending Mississippi abortion case, POLITICO has learned, and none of the conservative justices who initially sided with Alito have to date switched their votes.

The reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that Roberts’ earlier decisions in support of the Affordable Care Act remain politically relevant now.

*snip*

[Hoyt]

1. Leaking, or Politico is just making stuff up based upon speculation. Or, they are being used.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. Except the leak to Politico was confirmed the next day

And there was a leak the week before to WSJ that kind of slipped by. And I suspect the Post may have known something early, considering the timing of Amazon's abortion travel policy announcement.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

3. Do we have some reason to doubt Politico's journalistic standards?

Seems like they have very clearly stated they are confident in the leak the first time, and they were correct.

[Nevilledog]

5. What's your basis for thinking Politico made it up?

[Sympthsical]

22. One of the clerks is married to a journalist who used to work at Politico

Specifically someone who shared bylines with the reporter who published the leak.

While our side is convinced it's a conservative, conservatives are convinced it's a liberal.

Weird how things conveniently align like that.

However, I do find a clerk married to a journalist who just so happens to have worked with the Politico reporter while at Politico kind of worth a raised eyebrow. Everyone kept wondering how this ended up at Politico of all places, and here we have a fairly concrete and tangible connection.

It's speculation, but at least it isn't, "A theory based on what I want to be true," or the sixteenth op-ed, "I've consulted with the Force, so this is definitely true."

We'll eventually know, so meh. But this is who conservatives are starting to lock onto. I have to say, you can't dismiss the possibility given what is knowable.

[Maeve]

4. Still think the original leak in this was to WSJ

They knew something before the "leak" was official about the proposed ruling and Alito writing the opinion
https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/05/how-the-leak-might-have-happened/

[Scrivener7]

6. So the conservative justices are using my uterus to get back at Roberts for ACA. Great.

Fuck you's to all those who did not vote for Hillary.

[Lonestarblue]

18. The ACA will be history if Republicans win majorities in Congress and the WH in 2024.

Along with a lot of other programs we rely on. Cuts to SS, Medicare, and Medicaid will be on the table, along with privatizing the USPS.

Democrats need to make it clear what voters are choosing when they vote for Republicans.

[lastlib]

24. Set the way-back machine to the 1850s if the GQP take more power.

That is where we'll be headed. NO social safety net. NO environmental protection. NO safeguards for voting rights or privacy rights. NO equality for women or minorities. "Bleak" isn't the word for it; "dystopian" only begins to describe it.

VOTE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT--it DOES! Bring friends. Otherwise, we are headed to the basement of the third-world countries.

[elleng]

7. OYE!

[Demsrule86]

8. What a fucking bunch of bullshit. The court is over. They can't recover from this.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. No one is going to respect anything coming from the Supreme Court.

I think we do have to expand the court. The conservos have really stank up the place.

[AleksS]

12. Does it matter if anyone respects them?

I get the feeling The fanatic 5 will sleep soundly and deeply on their pillows stuffed with dead women’s bodies, untroubled by whether they’re respected or not.

[Lonestarblue]

19. Yes, they feel invulnerable because they have lifetime appointments.

And they’re giddy with their power to turn the US into a backward religious state.

[MissMillie]

9. Nary a leak until the TFG's appointments showed up

Go figure.

[uponit7771]

14. +1,

[Hortensis]

11. "it suggests a degree of corruption in conservative jurisprudence that's tough to defend."

"As for the idea that Roberts’ ACA rulings are somehow relevant, and other Republican-appointed justices are ignoring him now as part of some kind of retaliatory move, it suggests a degree of corruption in conservative jurisprudence that’s tough to defend."

That's MSNBC very diplomatic UNDERSTATING of the ethical and legal corruption of this court's conservatives. Anger at Roberts and the survival of our national healthcare program should have absolutely nothing to do with this decision regarding abortion.

SCOTUS has become a political tool of the Republican Party, itself a political tool of the religious right and other RW megapowers. Three justices appointed by them, not by us.

[AleksS]

13. We've seen it at the state level for over a decade now

In WI, it’s not been hidden that for most of the last decade the State Supreme Court has been a fully bought and paid for arm of the Republican Party.

[Hortensis]

15. I believe it. The most and worst subversion and corruption

by anti-democracy Republicans has been happening at state and local levels.

[LymphocyteLover]

30. Yes and it's that way in every red state

[flying_wahini]

16. Although I haven't seen it mentioned, I have heard it said that Catholics are hating SCOTUS

For giving them(Catholics) a black eye.
Anyone else heard this?

[Captain Zero]

26. The Catholic Church NEEDS to OWN this COURT

Its their monster too.

[Bird Lady]

17. Leaking to quell the electorate

Trying to make it to the mid terms then all hell will break loose and their republican enablers will bring back the dark ages.

[IronLionZion]

20. If the leak turns out to be a spouse of a justice

that justice needs to be recused from cases or removed from office

[Bird Lady]

21. I vote for removed from office. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

28. Republicans wouldn't vote to remove that justice even if he shot someone in the middle of 5th ave.

[IcyPeas]

23. I despise mitch McConnell. /nt

[dchill]

25. The Supreme Court is going to have to vote...

...to overturn the Supreme Court.

[Ms. Toad]

27. Precisely what was intended - to make it significantly harder for the conservatives to defect

before the ultimate ruling.

[Novara]

29. Good. I hope the worry keeps them up all night long, the fuckers.

[Bird Lady]

31. I hope the whole lying pos are..

visited in the night by Ninjas.

[question everything]

32. Interesting letters in today WSJ

According to Evan Thomas’s book “First: Sandra Day O’Connor, ” Justice Kennedy was one of five justices who initially voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, but Justices O’Connor and David Souter were “able to persuade Kennedy to change his initial vote in conference, from overturning Roe to sustaining it.” The leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion is another attempt to change the mind of justices who intend to overturn Roe.
Charles D. Eden, Atlanta

The leak probably came from someone in that majority who wanted to make it impossible for any justice who might have been wavering— Brett Kavanaugh, for example—to reconsider his vote.
James Tyler Wallingford, Pa.

I don’t think the Alito opinion will be the majority opinion. It has harsh rhetoric about Roe that isn’t necessary and won’t help to heal the rift. I suspect the leaker chose this draft precisely because it had the harshest rhetoric of those in circulation and would inflame passions on the left.
David Peterson, Orlando

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-understand-the-supreme-courts-abortion-leak-11652201209 (subscription)