Eight months after the most unprecedented leak in the history of the United States Supreme Court, the identity of the source behind the leak of the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade still remains a mystery.
As the Daily Caller reports, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into the May 2nd leak by the Supreme Court marshal; however, no updates have been given on the marshal’s progress, if any.
The infamous leak led to a series of protests and riots, including threatening demonstrations outside the homes of several of the court’s conservative justices after their information was doxxed by far-left pro-abortion groups. Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Roberts were the most-targeted, as they are all members of the court’s conservative majority, and the leaked draft revealed that it was Alito who would write the opinion for the majority.
The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ultimately reversed Roe’s precedent, which established abortion as a Constitutional right that would be guaranteed at the national level, and instead returned the matter of abortion back to the individual states to decide.
The protests ultimately led to a California man being arrested for the attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after he came within blocks of Kavanaugh’s Maryland home with several weapons on his person. Many legal experts have pointed out that such protests are illegal, as the protesters were deliberately attempting to intimidate the justices into making a different ruling.
“Federal judges’ safety is a particularly important concern given our polarized political environment. One of the biggest drivers of threats against Supreme Court justices is the leak of the Dobbs draft,” said Ilya Shapiro, director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute, in a statement condemning the lack of information from the Court marshal. “It’s long past time for Chief Justice Roberts to reveal the results of the Marshal’s investigation into the leak — and for the legal community to punish the leaker whatever his/her ideological motivation.”
“Today the public knows nothing more about the leak than the day after it happened,” said Carrie Severino, President of the Judicial Crisis Network. “Given the unprecedented nature of the leak and its implications for the justices’ lives and safety, it’s surprising that the Chief Justice has not yet given any updates on the status of the investigation.”
Although it has not yet been specified as to which charges the leaker could face, some have said that he or she could be charged with stealing government property or converting government records for personal use; the latter charge could lead to a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The leaker is widely understood to be an employee of the Court, most likely working for one of the three left-wing justices, who released the leak in an effort to sway the majority’s votes with public pressure in order to preserve Roe.