At 1:50 am this morning, an armed man with burglary tools was arrested near Justice Kavanuagh's home in Maryland. He told the police that he wanted to murder the Justice. Fortunately, someone tipped off the police, and the man did not make it onto Kavanaugh's property. The police stopped him nearby. According to the Washington Post, the would-be-assassin was angry about the leaked opinion in Dobbs. We should all pray for the safety of Justice Kavanaugh, as well as the other Justices.
Every day that goes by, and Dobbs remains undecided, is a day that the lives of the Justices and their families are at risk. Immediately after the leak, I wrote that the Court should issue a one-sentence per curiam opinion, with a reasoned decision to follow--follow the path of Ex Parte Quirin. Lurking in the back of mind was the risk that a Justice could be assassinated. Now, that risk looks so much more real.
Why, then, has the Court not issued a decision in Dobbs yet? We know the majority opinion was finished in February. Yet, at least in May, the Chief Justice still had not circulated his much-vaunted concurrence. My cynical take was that "circulating the draft opinion at the latest possible juncture creates chaos, and makes it more likely that things can move around without sufficient deliberation."
