Supreme Court could not identify who shared draft abortion opinion

Source: Politico | January 19, 2023 | Josh Gerstein

A Court investigation has found that document handling was inadequate and new security measures have been tightened.

An investigation by the Supreme Court has been unable to determine who disclosed to POLITICO last year a draft opinion overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion, the court said in a statement Thursday.

The internal probe zeroed in on 82 employees who had access to electronic or hard copies of the draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, but “was unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence,” the high court said.

“The leak was no mere misguided attempt at protest. It was a grave assault on the judicial process,” the court said in a joint statement that blasted the disclosure as an “extraordinary betrayal of trust.”

The high court also released a 20-page report of the investigation, announced by Chief Justice John Roberts last May immediately after POLITICO’s publication of the draft opinion and conducted by Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley.

“No one confessed to publicly disclosing the document and none of the available forensic and other evidence provided a basis for identifying any individual as the source of the document,” Curley’s report said. “All personnel who had access to the draft opinion signed sworn affidavits affirming they did not disclose the draft opinion nor know anything about who did.”

While not pinning blame for the leak on any individual, the review found that several court staffers had been cavalier in their handling of sensitive information, including about the abortion case in question, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“Some individuals admitted to investigators that they told their spouse or partner about the draft Dobbs opinion and the vote count, in violation of the Court’s confidentiality rules,” the report said. “Several personnel told investigators they had shared confidential details about their work more generally with their spouses and some indicated they thought it permissible to provide such information to their spouses. Some personnel handled the Dobbs draft in ways that deviated from their standard process for handling draft opinions.”

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