Justice Alito has ‘pretty good idea’ who leaked the ‘Dobbs’ ruling and why they did it

According to an interview published in The Wall Street Journal on April 29, 2023, Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito has revealed that he has a good idea about who leaked the draft Dobbs ruling prior to the full court’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, and the motive behind it.

Alito said that he personally had a “pretty good idea” of the individual(s) responsible for the unprecedented leak, but acknowledged that he did not have enough proof to name anyone.

The leak was part of a campaign to prevent the Dobbs draft from becoming the decision of the court and was used by people outside the court as part of the campaign to intimidate the court.

Alito expressed concern that the leak led to protests outside the homes of some of the court’s conservatives, which were not prosecuted by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, and the possibility of an assassination attempt.

Alito said that those justices thought to have approved his draft opinion were the targets of assassination, and it was rational for people to believe that they might be able to stop the decision in Dobbs by killing one of them. Alito may have been alluding to an assassination attempt against fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh; an armed man was arrested outside his home on June 8 and has since pleaded not guilty in court. The leak also caused justices to alter their schedules for fear of being attacked.

Alito discussed one such incident where he was scheduled to speak to law school students at George Mason University just a few days after the leak. Due to security concerns, he ended up giving the speech by Zoom. He added that while the leak created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust, they have worked through it and are trying to get back to normal operations.

The Chief Justice John Roberts directed the marshal of the Supreme Court to investigate the leak, and she issued her findings in January 2023, saying that investigators had been unable to determine the identity of the person(s) who disclosed the draft majority opinion. The report also stated that investigators found no forensic evidence to suggest that the Court’s IT systems were improperly accessed by a person outside the Court.

Alito responded to left-wing commentators who claimed that the leak likely came from a conservative justice, stating that it was infuriating to him. He added that the leak made them targets of assassination and it was implausible that the five justices would do that to themselves.

Alito also expressed concern about the attacks on the legitimacy of the court, mostly from the Democratic left, and stated that the courts were being unfairly attacked, and almost nobody was defending them. He added that while judges are not supposed to respond to criticisms, if the courts are being unfairly attacked, the organized bar will come to their defense.