The anonymous person or persons responsible for the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade (1973) and other cases upholding the right to abortion set off a media whirlwind on Monday night by violating one of the strictest institutional norms in American politics: what happens in the Supreme Court, stays in the Supreme Court.
At this point, we have no idea whether the draft opinion means that the court will actually overturn Roe. And we have no idea whether the leaker or leakers will ever be identified or whether their motives—the subject of wild speculation on Twitter and cable news on Tuesday—will be confirmed.
