The New York Times just published a piece exposing leaked internal memos between Chief Justice John Roberts and the rest of the court members.
The conversations were centered around the recent Trump cases, so this was clearly a targeted leak to put public pressure on Justice Roberts.
Talking Points…
- The leaks
- Thomas being targeted
- Analysis
The court clearly has a problem, with this now being the second major leak of internal documents. The first was the draft of Roe v. Wade, and now, internal conversations regarding the Trump cases are coming before the Supreme Court.
From my perspective, these leaks show that Thomas is doing what he is supposed to be doing as the chief justice. He is taking the lead and ensuring that a proper decision on this matter is made. For instance, Roberts wrote:
“As I read it, it says simply a former president can be prosecuted because he’s being prosecuted.
“I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently.”
Another leaked conversation was regarding the case being pushed beyond the election or being ruled on before due to how everyone believed this could impact the country if Trump were elected. Again, Roberts took the lead, writing:
“In a case like this one, focusing on ‘transient results’ may have profound consequences for the separation of powers and for the future of our Republic.
“Our perspective must be more farsighted.”
This is clearly an effort by someone with a liberal leaning to paint Roberts as a villain, and we all saw what happened after Roe v. Wade and all the threats against our conservative justices. James Burnham of King Street Legal and a former senior Justice Department official commented on the leaks, stating:
"I think it's enormously destructive to the court when people inside the court disclose to the press confidential memoranda, confidential emails and what appears to even be remarks made at the justices' conference.
"It's destructive because the justices can't be candid with each other if they think that anything they say could end up in the New York Times. And that means they're going to speak less to each other. It means they're not going to be able to deliberate with the same openness that they historically have, and it ultimately undermines the court's decision making.”
He then added that this was clearly an effort to “cast a negative light on the Chief Justice and the other justices in the majority for what I think was a plainly correct and brave decision.” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, also attacked the leaker, claiming it "is of a piece with the continued left-wing PR campaign against the Court." John Shu, a constitutional attorney who served in both Bush administrations, added:
"Because he is the Chief Justice, he gets to assign opinions when he’s in the majority, which is much of the time, and he has administrative power that the other justices do not have. And much like the President is the embodiment of Article 2, the Chief Justice is the embodiment of Article 3.
"It's really scary that yet another norm has been shattered, violating the sacred confidentiality of deliberations and the opinion drafting process.”
There are two things very clearly happening here. The first is that an investigation needs to take place immediately to track down and seal this leak. The second is that Justice Roberts is being vilified for literally doing his job as the chief justice of the Supreme Court. If Roberts gets threatened or attacked, I would even add those charges to the individual responsible for the leak. This must be stopped, or it will utterly destroy the most sacred court we have in this country.
