Supreme Court Springs A Leak...

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/01/509359/supreme-court-springs-a-leak-leaks-to-conservative-pundits-may-have-started-more-than-a-month-ago/

Supreme Court Springs A Leak; Leaks To Conservative Pundits May Have Started More Than A Month Ago

By Ian Millhiser on Jul 1, 2012 at 5:01 pm


CBS News’ Jan Crawford confirms widespread rumors that Chief Justice John Roberts initially voted to strike down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, but decided midway through the opinion drafting process that he could not support this constitutionally unjustifiable result. In what may be the biggest revelation of her piece, Crawford also reports that pseudo-moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy led the internal lobbying effort to bring Roberts back into the right-wing fold:

Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy – believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law – led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold.

“He was relentless,” one source said of Kennedy’s efforts. “He was very engaged in this.”

But this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into, “You’re on your own.”

The conservatives refused to join any aspect of his opinion, including sections with which they agreed, such as his analysis imposing limits on Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause, the sources said.

Instead, the four joined forces and crafted a highly unusual, unsigned joint dissent. They deliberately ignored Roberts’ decision, the sources said, as if they were no longer even willing to engage with him in debate.

Crawford cites two unnamed sources, and there are a very limited universe of people who could have revealed this information to her. Only the justices and their personal staff would have access to this knowledge, and it is highly unlikely that a clerk or secretary would be willing to risk their entire career by revealing the Court’s confidential deliberations to the press. Crawford, moreover, is a very well connected conservative reporter who has, at times, worked closely with the Federalist Society to drive conservative legal narratives. Nothing is certain, but it is likely that one or both of Crawford’s sources is a conservative justice.

snip//

To be clear, at this point only two facts are confirmed: 1) According to Crawford, Roberts flipped his vote midstream; and 2) someone within the Court must have leaked her this information. It is perfectly appropriate for Justice Kennedy, or any other justice, for that matter, to internally lobby Roberts to try to obtain his vote in an important case. If a member of the Court has turned to conservative columnists like Will or reporters like Crawford in order to pressure and then embarrass Roberts, however, that would be a significant and unusual escalation from the justices’ regular tactics.

[atreides1]

1. ???

What did Kennedy have at stake for trying to sway Roberts back to the conservative side?

[babylonsister]

2. A huge loss for the Dem admin? nt

[rocktivity]

3. Roberts didn't "flip" anything. His "original position" was

Last edited Mon Jul 2, 2012, 01:34 PM - Edit history (1)

that while the ACA mandate was unconstitutional, the rest of it was fine with him. The other conservatives tried to "flip" him into to striking down all of ACA, but they failed.


rocktivity

[LiberalFighter]

4. If they used outside pressure

would that be grounds for any type of legal action against the clerk or justice involved?

[a kennedy]

5. Did Clarence Thomas leak story alleging Roberts Supreme Court health care switch?

Court watchers are buzzing about a CBS News report that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts changed his vote on whether to strike down the individual mandate, or even the entire Affordable Care Act. Now, the question turns to who leaked that information to reporter Jan Crawford.

ThinkProgress reports that a New York Times follow-up story strongly implies that Clarence Thomas, who has expressed admiration for Crawford (who has defended him and his wife from critics in the past) is the source of the leaks about Roberts. From the Times story:

[T]he possibility that conservatives had victory within reach only to lose it seemed to infuriate some of them. The CBS News report, attributed to two sources with “specific knowledge of the deliberations,” appeared to give voice to the frustrations of people associated with the court’s conservative wing. It was written by Jan Crawford, whose 2007 book, “Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court,” was warmly received by conservatives.

In a 2009 interview on C-Span, Justice Thomas singled her out as a favorite reporter. “There are wonderful people out here who do a good job — do a fantastic job — like Jan Greenburg,” Justice Thomas said, referring to Ms. Crawford by her married name at the time.

Leaks from the Supreme Court are unprecedented, and in this case, may reflect the bitterness that Roberts’ decision to uphold the healthcare mandate created on the conservative side of the court.

A source with knowledge of the deliberations confirms to theGrio that Roberts, possibly as late as mid-June, was prepared to strike down the individual mandate, siding with his fellow conservative justices, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Libertarian-leaning Justice Anthony Kennedy. The source also confirms other elements of Crawford’s story — namely that intense pressure was being placed on Roberts by the conservatives to strike down the entire law.

http://thegrio.com/2012/07/03/did-clarence-thomas-leak-story-alleging-roberts-supreme-court-healthcare-switch/

[rocktivity]

6. More

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002887958