The Committee for Justice released the following statement by its president, Curt Levey, on the release yesterday of the Supreme Court’s statement and report on the May 2022 leak of the Dobbs draft opinion:
The failure of the Supreme Court’s report to shed any light on the identity of the leaker is the worst possible outcome of the Court’s investigation. The absence of any punishment or even consequences for the leaker makes it more likely that this “grave assault on the judicial process”—as the Justices’ statement calls it—will be repeated, further damaging the Court's integrity and cohesion.
It is unfortunate that many voices on the Left have seized upon the failure to identify the leaker as an opportunity to push a theory that the Court is trying to cover up the supposed fact that the leaker was a conservative clerk or justice. These critics cite no evidence and ignore both that yesterday’s statement came from the entire Court and the common sense observation that the leaker was likely angry about the draft Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
A number of those pushing this baseless theory venture even deeper into fantasy by claiming the leaker was Justice Alito. While it’s very unlikely that any of the justices were behind the leak, it is particularly absurd to point the finger at Justice Alito. As the author of the draft opinion, the leak put his life in danger even more so than those of his conservative colleagues.
The Court’s statement that it was unable to identify the leaker “by a preponderance of the evidence" seems to suggest that there are possible suspects, as does the disclosure that investigators “conducted multiple follow-up interviews of certain employees.”
Given that the Court’s investigation identified suspects, the dangerous consequences of allowing this mystery to go unsolved, and the apparent winding down of this investigation, we believe that further investigation should be conducted outside the Court. We are pleased to hear reports that the House Judiciary Committee will investigate the leak, and we believe that the FBI or other federal law enforcement should do so as well.
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