January 20, 2023

A Botched Investigation and a Thoughtful Celebration

Despite the failure of the Roberts Court to find the leaker of the Dobbs decision, there’s still much to celebrate on March for Life weekend.

The worst part of the Roberts Court’s failure to find and punish those responsible for the most egregious breach of confidentiality in the history of the Supreme Court isn’t the corrosive damage it’s done to the culture of trust within the High Court. It’s the certainty that such a breach will happen again.

And it will happen again, perhaps sooner than we think. After all, the unprecedented leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft Dobbs decision was wildly successful. It raised awareness of the monumental decision to come, and it gave pro-abortion activists plenty of lead time to mount their campaign against the decision.

From timely op-eds, to congressional grandstanding, to massive fundraising, to voter mobilization, to terrorizing justices with everything from protests in front of their homes to a near-assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh — from all of this, we can say with certainty that the leak was a resounding success. And without any accountability, without any consequences having been meted out, what other possible message might future leftist activists take?

For example, the 5-3-1 conservative court may well strike down affirmative action this year, and wouldn’t it be helpful for those on the Left to mount a campaign in advance of the decision to denounce the systemic racism and white supremacy inherent within the High Court? Perhaps that sort of preemptive action could even help Chief Justice John Roberts peel off one or two of the more conservative justices to help chart a “middle course” that preserves the current racially discriminatory status quo in higher-ed admissions.

Last May, at the time of the leak, Roberts called it “an egregious breach of trust,” and he called upon the Marshal of the Court to find out who leaked the document to Politico. Investigators conducted more than 120 interviews of nearly 100 employees, all of whom — wait for it! — denied disclosing the opinion, the Court said. The Marshal didn’t say how many of these employees were waterboarded harshly interrogated.

The absence of any mention of FBI involvement in the case, though, leads us to wonder just how serious Chief Justice Roberts is about solving this case.

According to Fox News, some three dozen law clerks were the initial focus of the investigation, and some of them even voluntarily turned over their phones for examination. Stunningly, as the report noted, several court employees acknowledged that they’d told their spouses or partners about the draft opinion and the court’s preliminary vote count, which was, of course, a gross violation of the court’s confidentiality rules.

Per the Marshal’s report, the investigation team has been “unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”

We’re pleased to report, though, the following vote of confidence from the High Court: “The Marshal and her team will continue to have our full support.” Despite this, the report’s closing paragraph reads rather unreassuringly:

In time, continued investigation and analysis may produce additional leads that could identify the source of the disclosure. Whether or not any individual is ever identified as the source of the disclosure, the Court should take action to create and implement better policies to govern the handling of Court-sensitive information and determine the best IT systems for security and collaboration.

Translation: We’ll keep at it (harrumph), but don’t hold your breath.

All this bad news is set against the backdrop of a weekend that otherwise portends great news and a glorious celebration: The annual March for Life right there in Washington, DC. It’s the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the first March since that decision’s overturning.

Last year’s long-overdue Dobbs decision began saving lives almost immediately. Indeed, as our Nate Jackson humbly and joyously wrote at the time, “Babies Win.”

Still, there’s plenty of work left to be done, especially with some conflicting data about whether the sheer volume of abortions has dropped significantly and with “do it yourself” abortions on the rise.

“The 50th March for Life will be a great celebration of the ending of Roe v. Wade,” write Virginia Allen and Lauren Evans at The Daily Signal, “and a great call to action as we enter a new era in the fight for life in the states. The prayer is that one day the March for Life will be unnecessary because all of America will recognize that a baby in the womb is a unique human life worthy of protection.”

Hear, hear. And Happy 50th, you stalwart March for Lifers! Join us celebrating Sanctity of Life Day Sunday. Imago Dei!

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.