Alito: Leaked Opinion Unprecedented, But No Evidence to Name Leaker
Supreme Court Justice Alito comments on leaked Dobbs decision, calls breach of trust, but says no proof to name leaker.
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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito expressed his concerns about the leak of the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade during an interview with Fox News anchor Shannon Bream. Alito stated that the disclosure was an unprecedented breach of trust within the Court, describing it as a grave violation of the confidence placed in the judicial system.
“I never dreamed the draft of the opinion would be leaked. That was totally unprecedented in the history of the country. It was a grave breach of the trust that everybody who worked in this building had before that point,” Alito said.
Alito also highlighted the dangerous consequences of the leak, stating that it made the five justices in the majority targets for assassination. He added that it nearly resulted in the assassination of his colleague, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says he has a “pretty good idea” who leaked the draft Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, but he will not name anyone because his suspicion falls short of the proof needed to identify the person.
Politico published the leaked draft on May 2, 2022, about seven weeks before the Court issued the final decision on June 24. The draft was nearly identical to the opinion that came down, prompting Chief Justice John Roberts to order an investigation. However, the inquiry could not identify who was responsible, as clerks and staff signed affidavits, and the justices were interviewed without being required to sign them.
Alito has long said that he has a good idea about who did it. In an April 2023 interview with The Wall Street Journal, he stated, “I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.” He dismissed theories that a conservative leaked the draft, calling them “infuriating” and stating it was implausible that the five justices in the majority would have made themselves targets.
Alito described the leak as part of an effort to stop the draft from becoming the decision of the Court, with outsiders using the six weeks before the final ruling to try to intimidate the justices. The consequences were not just theoretical, as a California man was arrested near Kavanaugh’s house in Maryland in June 2022 with a gun, ammunition, and tools. He later pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate a Supreme Court justice.
On the decision itself, Alito told Bream that the result followed from the text and the history. He stated, “I know this is very controversial, but I thought it was perfectly clear that the reference to liberty in the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868 did not mean that there is a constitutional right to abortion.” Alito noted that abortion was illegal in most states in 1868 and that it was “unthinkable” that those states would have ratified an amendment that wiped out their own laws and then left those laws on the books for decades.
Dobbs returned the regulation of abortion to the states and to Congress, without enacting a national ban. The five justices who joined Alito’s opinion overruling Roe were Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred in the judgment on narrower grounds.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
