Six months of investigation, interviews with 97 employees, and meticulous forensic examination of computers and cellphones have failed to identify the person who, in May 2022, leaked a draft opinion in a Supreme Court case that would ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade and a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
At the time, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. called the breach “a singular and egregious” violation of traditional court confidentiality. Commentators and justices themselves warned of the court’s integrity being sullied and America’s already fractured politics being further polarized.
Yet, while the breach in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization may have been egregious, it was hardly singular. There have been instances in the court’s history where word leaked of upcoming rulings, in one case involving the chief justice of the Supreme Court himself.
