Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says he has a “pretty good idea” that leaked the jam-packed draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade and condemned the death threats made against the bank in the aftermath.
Alito told the Wall Street Journal that the leak made judges “targets of assassination attempts” and “created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust.”
“This year, I think, we’re trying to return to normal operation as much as possible… But it was detrimental,” he added.
He also believes the split led to the “rational” that some thought the only way to stop the decision was to “kill one of us.”
The draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked in May 2022, a month before the decision was officially announced.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says he has a ‘pretty good idea’ of who leaked the draft opinion of the bomb that overturned Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court marshals have been investigating who was behind the breach since last year, but have been unable to identify the suspect.
The leak sparked a wave of protests and direct threats against members of the Supreme Court, including an armed man who was arrested for showing up at Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home and threatening to kill him.
The suspect, Nicholas Roske, was later charged with attempted murder and has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say he flew from California to the East Coast and made his way to Kavanaugh’s home with a briefcase armed with a Glock-17 pistol, two magazine clips, a speed loader, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail stamp and a crowbar.
The abolition of the federal right to abortion prompted several states to follow suit by introducing stricter laws.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed a six-week abortion ban.
“I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s a little different than the level of evidence needed to name someone,” Alito said of the leaker in the interview.
“Those of us who were assumed to be in the majority, who would have approved my draft opinion, were really targeted for assassination.”
“It was rational for people to think they could stop the decision by killing one of us.”
He praised the work of the marshals during the investigation, but there is not enough evidence to identify the leaker.
Alito believes that the responsible person has tried to change the text of the advice by leaking it prematurely.
However, the wording was much the same when the court ruled 5-4 to overthrow Roe in June.
“And so it was used for those six weeks by people from the outside – as part of the campaign to intimidate the court,” he added.
There has been speculation by both liberals and conservatives about who leaked the draft opinion and why.
Those on the left have said a conservative may have been responsible for winning the vote.
While on the right, it was alleged that it was done by a liberal to spark the outrage that followed.
Alito revealed how he was forced to cancel an in-person George Mason University event in May 2022 due to concerns for his safety.
Instead, he addressed students and attendees through a closed circuit of the Supreme Court.
Our police consulted with the George Mason Police Department and the Arlington Police Department and they said, ‘It’s not a good idea. He can’t come here. . . . The security problems will be serious,” he said
“So I ended up giving the speech via Zoom,” he says. “Yet there were so many demonstrators and they were so loud you could hear them.”
Now he doesn’t feel ‘personally unsafe’, because of the heightened security he gets.
He said he is being driven around in “actually a tank, and I’m not supposed to go anywhere alone without the tank and my members of the police force.”