Tensions are high as the Supreme Court’s search to uncover who leaked the draft opinion that would overturn the landmark case of Roe v. Wade intensifies. The newest development would require law clerks to provide private cell phone records and sign affidavits, as CNN reports, causing some clerks to consider obtaining independent legal counsel. Outside lawyers have encouraged this decision as concerns of potential intrusiveness grow.
As this abrupt request for the law clerks’ private cell phone data means the source of the breach has yet to be found, I began thinking about the implications of the leak— not only the prospective consequences for its source, which will presumably only be career-oriented and not criminal, but rather for the nation as a whole. As POLITICO reports, no draft opinion in the court’s modern history has been released before its publication. POLITICO quotes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg saying, “At the Supreme Court, those who know don’t talk, and those who talk don’t know,” to emphasize just how secretive an institution it is.
Evidently, the leaking resulted in hot public debate. Many assume the leaker was a left-wing clerk for one of the liberal justices whose incentive was to mobilize public pressure on the Court as well as delegitimize it. Others speculate that it was a right-wing clerk with an entirely different motive. Regardless of the ‘who’ and ‘why’, with the majority of Americans believing that abortion access should be legal, advocates of reproductive autonomy have been given the chance to speak out about the opinion’s likely detriment. So, I have to ask, is the leak actually a bad thing at all?
To answer this question, I turned my attention to what Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers leaker, had to say about it. In an interview with NPR, Ellsberg expresses that “Unauthorized disclosures are the lifeline of a republic.” He praises the leaker of the Supreme Court draft opinion, maintaining the great service they have done for our nation. Because the Supreme Court preserves its power by concealing conflicting arguments, Ellsberg believes it is important that the public know how the politicization of the Court is affecting them.
Now, only time will tell whether the Court’s final opinion will change as a result of public pressure in response to the leak.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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