On July 1, the Court decided Moody v. NetChoice. Later that day, I speculated that Justice Alito was assigned, and lost, the majority opinion. I had no inside information. I do not have any leaks. Rather, I was able to track the Court's assignments in each sitting, observe that Alito was short an assignment, and realize that Alito's separate opinion read very much like a majority opinion. Indeed, Alito signaled as much with this fourth-wall-breaking jab:
For these reasons, I am therefore compelled to provide a more complete discussion of those matters than is customary in an opinion that concurs only in the judgment.
Two weeks earlier, I speculated that Justice Alito lost the majority opinion in Gonzales v. Trevino. The per curiam majority was unusual. I wrote:
