Justice Roberts On A Warpath After SCOTUS Leak, What's Next

Chief Justice John Roberts in a rare statement Tuesday morning confirmed the authenticity of a leaked and provisional Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. Roberts also vowed to find the source of the leak and confirmed that he has launched an investigation:

"Yesterday, a news organization published a copy of a draft opinion in a pending case. Justices circulate draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court’s confidential deliberative work. Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., provided the following statement:

To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.

We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce – permanent employees and law clerks alike – intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.

I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak."

The Marshalls have some clues to start with. According to NYT, the document Politico posted online appeared to be slightly askew, as if it had been placed hastily on a photocopy machine or scanner. The top left corner was dog-eared and looked as if a large staple were removed from the 98-page draft opinion. And the words “1st Draft” are highlighted in yellow — though it is not clear whether that was done with a highlighter pen or with a highlight feature on a word processor.

Each Justice would have had a copy and their staffers would have had access to it. Find the matching original and find the office it came from.