Over at Divided Argument, Will Baude comments on the NYT release of internal Supreme Court memos concerning whether to stay the Obama EPA's Clean Power Plan. I largely concur with Baude's assessment.
One point he makes is worth expanding upon. As I noted Saturday, the documents largely confirm what educated observers already suspected about the Court's decision. Baude writes:
the biggest scandal here is in fact the leaks themselves. Supreme Court leaks like these — including copies of confidential work product — are becoming more common. In my view, this is a bad thing. It will damage the institutional culture of the Court and do little good. But Jodi Kantor is a super-powered investigative reporter, determined to break through some of the Court's norms of confidentiality, and I would bet on her succeeding. If so, we will have to become skilled at figuring out what these documents really tell us, and what they do not.
