No definitive determination has been made about who leaked the draft decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that signaled the intention of Justices to Overturn Roe v. Wade — the 1973 landmark ruling that legalized abortion at the federal level.
On May 2, 2022, Politico posted a draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Dobbs was the principal abortion case that would subsequently overturn Roe v. Wade. The exceptional leak precipitated protests at the justices’ houses and throughout the nation that endured for months.
In the aftermath of the leak, Chief Justice John Roberts described the leak as an “egregious breach of trust.”
Roberts also referred the leak for investigation by the Marshal of the Court to inspect the state of affairs and uncover the individual who leaked the report to Politico.
So far, investigations have failed to identify the culprit.
The court revealed that Investigators had conducted over 120 interviews with nearly 100 employees — all of whom denied being the leak.
Then reports surfaced in the summer that the initial investigation concentrated on three dozen law clerks who worked closely with the Justices.
These law clerks were told to hand over their phones, which eventually led nowhere.
In the Marshal’s report, the notion that the court’s IT systems were compromised and accessed by an unauthorized third party was also dismissed, with the report confirming the link came from within.
The report also explains that, despite searching, “computer devices, networks, printers, and available call and text logs,” they weren’t closer to revealing who made the leak.
