Steve Sachs writes that Adam Liptak, a member of the New York Bar, may have transgressed certain rules of professional conduct by publicizing the leaked SCOTUS documents. Steve raises the broader concern of how journalistic ethics interact with legal ethics. A lawyer-journalist can easily resolve this tension by resigning from the bar, but there are professional reasons for maintaining that license.
The Supreme Court publishes a list of about two dozen "Hard Pass Holders." A good number of them are attorneys.
One of those names is none other than Joan Biskupic, who has been an inactive member of the D.C. bar since 1997. (Inactive members are still subject to all the rules.) Joan made her career on publishing leaked Supreme Court documents.
