The NYTimes (gift link courtesy of Axios):
On Feb. 10 last year, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. showed his eight colleagues how he intended to uproot the constitutional right to abortion.
At 11:16 a.m., his clerk circulated a 98-page draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After a justice shares an opinion inside the court, other members scrutinize it. Those in the majority can request revisions, sometimes as the price of their votes, sweating sentences or even words.
But this time, despite the document’s length, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote back just 10 minutes later to say that he would sign on to the opinion and had no changes, according to two people who reviewed the messages. The next morning, Justice Clarence Thomas added his name, then Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and days later, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. None requested a single alteration. The responses looked like a display of conservative force and discipline.
And of course there was the leak:
Justice Ginsburg’s death hung over the process. For months, the court delayed announcing its decision to hear the case, creating the appearance of distance from her passing. The justices later allowed Mississippi to perform a bait-and-switch, widening what had been a narrower attempt to restrict abortion while she was alive into a full assault on Roe — the kind of move that has prompted dismissals of other cases.
The most glaring irregularity was the leak to Politico of Justice Alito’s draft. The identity and motive of the person who disclosed it remains unknown, but the effect of the breach is clear: It helped lock in the result, The Times found, undercutting Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Breyer’s quest to find a middle ground.
It takes some blinders to think that Alito did NOT leak it himself. This was a power move that damaged the SCOTUS reputation, but also effectively capped Chief Justice Roberts’ in the ass.
This is a highly political court and it is being run by Witchfinder Alito, probably with an assist from Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society (worst polka and flute band ever).
When Alito-Thomas intimated that they would examine other areas of the court that they thought were wrongly decided, you better believe they will.
I wager that the abortion pill case will not be dramatic (in an election year and THEY ARE REPUBLICAN PARTISANS!), but they will revisit it immediately after. LGBTQ rights will be targeted, too. They are essentially an unbridled theocracy.
Republished with permission from Mock Paper Scissors.
