Deafening Silence on Dobbs Leak Undermines Supreme Court as an Institution
Chief Justice called leak a 'betrayal of the confidences of the Court' so why isn't he acting like it?
Chief Justice John Roberts is said to see defending the Supreme Court as an institution as pivotal to his role on it.
On its face then, the Court’s silence some two months after Justice Roberts announced an investigation into what he termed an “egregious breach”—the assault on the institution of the Court that was the leak of the draft Dobbs opinion that would prevail, returning the question of abortion to its rightful place within the states—is itself an egregious breach.
I lay out the case in a new piece at the Epoch Times, writing in part:
If the Court does not by now know who leaked the opinion, it would seem to constitute a breathtaking display of incompetence.
If the Court does know who leaked the opinion, yet for whatever reason is sitting on its findings, it would seem to constitute a breathtaking display of politics.
That’s because, on the merits, the silence is indefensible.
What could be of greater import to the institution’s integrity and credibility than to demonstrate that it will stop at nothing to, and with great haste, find and bring to justice an individual who would so grievously undermine the Court’s ability to do its most basic duty: deliberate, discreetly and insulated from political pressure and intimidation.
Silence on the leak probe only compounds the error of not ruling expeditiously in the wake of the leak, which fueled what else but a campaign of political pressure and intimidation up to and including threats to the life and limb of the judges.
Does the chief justice, so attuned to public opinion about the Court, think the probe can be cast as some kind of internal matter to be handled privately, and made to fade into the ether?
Do the findings implicate one or several justices, and as such, is the chief justice unsure how to proceed with the public?
The longer he remains silent, the greater the speculation will grow. Surely the chief justice does not think promoting such speculation is in the interest of the Court as an institution.
Read the whole thing here.