Again? NY Times SCOTUS Scribe Finds Abortion Opinion Leak ‘Blow to Court’s Legitimacy’

So far New York TimesCoverage of the Supreme Court bombshell — A leaked opinion which would reverse the 1973 abortion ruling Roe v. Wade — has been only slightly hysterical. But Adam Liptak’s front-page story Wednesday, “Extraordinary Breach Delivers Blow to the Court’s Legitimacy” is noteworthy for harping on the leak of a draft opinion as a blow to the Court’s legitimacy – before we know who leaked it.

Liptak, the paper’s Supreme Court beat reporter, actually admitted the leak of the draft opinion of Dobbs against Jackson Women’s Health OrganizationThe conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote the following. He was tempted to criticize the validity of the court’s legitimacy. But then, it became clear that the ruling had been leaked by a pro-life source, presumably one of his staff. Which may explain the reporter’s surprising aggrievement over the leak itself.

Liptak also brought in the unrelated matter of Ginny Thomas’s opinions to make his ongoing case for an illegitimate Supreme Court, at least now that conservative justices have a working majority:

There are motives. The leaked draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade is a clear example of this. Cui bono? Who is the beneficiary?

It is not the Supreme Court itself as an institution. Its reputation was in decline even before the extraordinary breach of its norms of confidentiality, with much of the nation persuaded that it is little different from the political branches of the government. It was an attack on the credibility of the court because the internal turmoil that the leak suggests is totally at odds with Chief Judge John G. Roberts Jr.’s decorum.

He also highlighted Sonia Sotomayor from liberal justice, who suggested alarmingly that overturning the law should occur. Roe v. Wade would create the perception that the Court was political – as if decades of liberal decisions haven’t already done that.

Speaking of hurting the Supreme Court’s legitimacy, Sotomayor claimed during debate earlier this year that 100,000 children were hospitalized with COVID when the actual number was 800. One TimesDavid Leonhardt (writer) has apparently thought it appropriate to make mention of this fact.

The court sustained collateral damage in March, when it emerged that Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, had sent incendiary text messages to the Trump White House in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack and that Justice Thomas not only had failed to disqualify himself from a related case but also had cast the sole noted dissent.

More harm was caused by the leak, which raises questions about the ability of the court to function orderly.

…

In an editorial last week, The Wall Street Journal expressed concern that Chief Justice Roberts was trying to persuade Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett to take his narrower approach.

The leak may then have served to secure the conservative five-justice majority.

Liptak found law professors to back him up, though many suspect the leaker was a pro-choice staffer hoping to gin up public outcry and perhaps change a justice’s vote. Left-leanings were shocked that Liptak’s draft opinion had been leaked. PoliticoThis is also a good thing. And surely a hypothetical “woke” staffer would have no qualms about ignoring guardrails in the name of a cause.

Supreme Court “delegitimization” is a tired old argument from Liptak – the arrogance to think that after decades of politicized liberal decision-making, the august body of the Court would only lose its credibility if a badly reasoned but liberal-pleasing decision like Roe v. WadeThe decision was reversed.