Who Is the Leaker?

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the need for confidence in our court system. In May 2022, we learned about the leak of the draft for the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. As soon as the leak occurred, the lives of the Justices on the Supreme Court were endangered.

            Justice Samuel Alito and his family were moved to a secure location. A would-be assassin approached the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh but called the police on himself. Now Justice Alito has spoken out about the problem.

            Justice Alito spoke about his legal career at The Heritage Foundation. Then he turned his remarks to the leak that brought protests from coast to coast. These are his words according to Mary Margaret Olohan. 

It was a shock because nothing like that had happened in the past….

So it certainly changed the atmosphere at the court for the remainder of last term. The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority, in support of overruling Roe and Casey, targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us. [The attempted assassination of Kavanaugh.] ….

We know that a man has been charged with attempting to kill Justice Kavanaugh…. It’s a pending case, so I won’t say anything more about that….

During my 16 years on the court, the justices have always gotten along very well…. On a personal level. I think the public, when they read our opinions, probably misses that.

You can see by reading those opinions, we sometimes disagree pretty passionately about the law…. And we have not in recent years been all that restrained about the times in which we express our disagreement. I’m as guilty as others probably on this score. But none of that is personal. And that is something that I think I wish the public understood.

            The would-be assassin of Justice Kavanaugh faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. However, we do not yet know who leaked the opinion. The leak not only caused protests from coast to coast, but they caused danger to the lives of all the Justices and their families.

            In addition to those problems, the leak caused problems inside the Supreme Court. Those Justices and other employees who were not the leaker are now in the position of not knowing who they can trust. The Justices need to know who the leaker is, so that they know who they can trust. American citizens need to know who the leaker is and also know that the leaker was punished to help restore their confidence in the Supreme Court.