In “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” — John le Carré’s classic novel about the hunt for a traitor near the top of British Intelligence — the hero, George Smiley, tells a colleague that “the art” of being a mole “is to be one of a crowd.” The greater the number of suspects, the smaller the possibility of being caught. Smiley is hauled from retirement to conduct some quiet detective work precisely because the alternative is a massive investigation that would disrupt and perhaps destroy the very institution it’s designed to protect.
That’s the territory the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to enter. According to news reports, the search for the leaker of Justice Samuel Alito’s proposed abortion opinion has led to demands that law clerks sign affidavits under penalty of perjury and allow inspection of their cell phone records. A sitting federal judge has joined the loud clamor for a criminal investigation.
This isn’t shattered trust; it’s self-immolation.
