On 5/3/2022, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri questioned Judiciary Subcommittee on the leaked SCOTUS Report. Josh Hawley said the leaker should be disbarred if they are a law clerk, “someone would do something like this a direct attack on the integrity of the court in order to achieve their preferred political outcome to me is abominable and presumably from inside the court I mean something I notice about this leak is this person knew the vote count, this person knew not they didn’t just grab an opinion that was circulating around this person knew what the vote was they knew what it was on the day it was cast they knew the status of the vote right now I mean if this isn’t an attempt to change votes and to try to alter that outcome I don’t know what the good of it is. If the person who leaked this is a member of the bar what what are the consequences?”
Professor Jennifer Mascott said, “I agree with Mr Dupree said I mean as you know as a former law clerk the code of confidentiality and integrity there was of utmost importance it’s shocking that it was violated and obviously the individual who leaked it would not be able to be a trusted member of the bar”
Hawley said, “yeah I would think at a minimum we’d be looking at disbarment here uh this is uh this is something I’ve never seen before I I’ve never I’m not aware of it happening in ever in Supreme Court history and it is a grave assault on on the institutional integrity of the court and I certainly hope that nobody else saw the opinion before it was published I mean I i hope that this opinion was not distributed and I hope that the attacks that we’re seeing are not coordinated because that would be very very serious indeed and I certainly hope no members of this body saw the opinion before it was published and have coordinated in any way.”
“what about all of these liberal dark money groups that are piling on today and gleefully celebrating this calling this leaker a champion of democracy, celebrating it I mean saying that this is just wonderful I mean isn’t the attempt here isn’t this a calculated attempt to try and undermine the integrity of the court the independence of the court to try and destroy basically its independence?” asked Hawley.
“The left continues its assault on the Supreme Court with an unprecedented breach of confidentiality, clearly meant to intimidate,” Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley also tweeted. “The Justices mustn’t give in to this attempt to corrupt the process. Stay strong.”
On 5/2/2022, POLITICO published a draft majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito in February, indicating that the high court has initially voted to abolish Roe v. Wade entirely. The Supreme Court has not yet issued a formal decision, and votes could change before that time — but if it holds, the ruling would send the issue of abortion rights back to states. The leak of the 98-page document — an extraordinary occurrence for the highly guarded institution — has rocked Washington and infuriated conservatives who said the breach was designed to intimidate the court and called for the person responsible to be caught and prosecuted. The breach of a draft opinion is an unprecedented departure from the norms on the normally airtight court, which has stood out among government institutions as relatively impervious to unauthorized disclosures even in tumultuous times.
Authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, an appointee of George W. Bush, the draft opinion amounted to rejection of Roe. Some legal scholars pointed out that it would raise significant questions about a slew of other Supreme Court precedents. Politico said a draft opinion was circulated in February by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. The report said Alito, along with Justice Clarence Thomas and all three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to the court — Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — voted to overturn the precedent. The leak was an extreme breach of court protocol.
https://facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/3267459856844338
Hawley: This person knew the vote count, Dems gleefully celebrating calling leaker a champion of democracy.