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Supreme Court leaks rare, but not unprecedented

Supreme Court
Posted at 11:23 AM, May 03, 2022
and last updated 2022-05-03 14:23:10-04

In a town where nothing is secret, one building has seemed to keep its secrets for the better part of 200 years.

"This leak is remarkable because it's a breach of that idea that they do all this behind closed doors," said Joshua Wilson.

Wilson is the chairman of the political science department at the University of Denver.

Politico published a draft Supreme Court majority opinion, that would overturn Roe v. Wade ending federal protection of abortion.

"The case that the court is specifically hearing is Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health clinic, which is a case disputing a Mississippi law that essentially bans abortion at 15 weeks," said Wilson.

While the leak of the draft majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, might be shocking, this is not the first time information has leaked from the Supreme Court. University of Georgia media law professor Jonathan Peters tweeted about several instances where the court's business was leaked, going back to an 1852 case about a bridge.

Peters and many others have brought up that the original Roe v. Wade decision was leaked to TIME Magazine.

It's unclear what punishments could be available to Chief Justice John Roberts if the source of the new leak is discovered.