U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a heartbreaking statement about the Supreme Court leaker before warning that he has a “pretty good idea” who leaked the court’s draft opinion that would overturn Roe V. Wade.
Alito said: “Those of us who were thought to be in the majority, thought to have approved my draft opinion, were really targets of assassination. It was rational for people to believe that they might be able to stop the decision in Dobbs by killing one of us.”
“Look, this made us targets of assassination. Would I do that to myself? Would the five of us have done that to ourselves? It’s quite implausible.
“I don’t feel physically unsafe, because we now have a lot of protection.
“I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.
“The leak created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. We worked through it, and last year we got our work done.
“This year, I think, we’re trying to get back to normal operations as much as we can. But it was damaging.
“We’re being bombarded with this and then those who are attacking us say, ‘Look how unpopular they are. Look how low their approval rating has sunk.’
“Well, yeah, what do you expect when you’re—day in and day out, ‘They’re illegitimate. They’re engaging in all sorts of unethical conduct. They’re doing this, they’re doing that’?
“It undermines confidence in the government.
“It’s one thing to say the court is wrong; it’s another thing to say it’s an illegitimate institution. You could say the same thing about Congress and the president.
“When you say that they’re illegitimate, any of the three branches of government, you’re really striking at something that’s essential to self-government.”
“This is not a situation in which the right thing to do is different from the expedient thing to do, at least in the long term.
“The public will have reason to question our legitimacy if they see that what we are doing is not following the Constitution and the laws, but we’ve got our finger to the wind and we’re issuing decisions that nobody really believes represent our sincere thinking about the law, but are structured in a way to curry favor, avoid controversy or something like that,” he said.
Justice Alito just told the Wall Street Journal that “I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.” …https://t.co/wnvayDeQtK
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 28, 2023
…Alito says that the person was clearly intending to stop the release of the opinion. If true, that contradicts claims of some like NPR’s Totenberg that the leaker likely was a conservative. https://t.co/NUn6680LYD
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 28, 2023
