Supreme Court closing in on suspect who leaked Roe v Wade-ending opinion

Leak of draft opinion in May helped galvanise opposition to decision

Investigators are reportedly closing in on identifying who leaked a draft ruling that ultimately became the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v Wade and end the constitutional right to an abortion.

Supreme Court marshals have narrowed their search down to a small number of suspects, including law clerks, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.

Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, a former Army colonel, is leading the investigation into the leak.

The search has involved interviews with those serving as the Supreme Court’s law clerks, a highly coveted position that usually goes to graduates of the country’s most prestigious law schools, the Journal reports.

The leak of the draft opinion in May from Justice Samuel Alito helped galvanise liberal opposition to the eventual decision across the country.

Politico first reported on the draft document’s content.

In addition to previewing the court’s ruling, which would imperil healthcare access for millions of pregnant people, the leak was an unprecedented breach of the Supreme Court’s cherished culture of confidentiality and collegiality.

At an event in May, Justice Clarence Thomas compared the leak to infidelity.

“Look where we are, where that trust or that belief is gone forever,” he said. “And when you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder.”

Since the leak, conspiracies theories have flown through Washington about who might’ve shared the document, including that a conservative leaked the document to lock in the ruling ending Roe, that a liberal leaked the document to foment opposition to the decision, or that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts leaked the document to pressure his colleagues to avoid fully overturning abortion rights.

Later that year, the drama surrounding the court continued.

In June, a man with a knife and a gun broke into Justice Brett Kavanuagh’s suburban Washington home, threatening to kill the Donald Trump-appointee.

Multiple conservative justices on the high court faced regular protests outside their homes amid the abortion decision, prompting a lengthy debate in Washington over whether such demonstrations were ethical and legal.

Some, like Senator Chuck Schumer, said the protests were part of an American tradition of democratic protest.

“There’s protests three, four times a week outside my house,” he said in May. “The American way to peacefully protest is okay.”

Many Republicans, meanwhile, argued the protests were an illegal attempt to influence judicial officials, the Washington Post reports.