The Anxiety Of Influence

NEW: A former anti-abortion leader says that the recent Supreme Court leak was *not* the only recent breach.

He obtained word of the 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling after years of using faith & favors to gain access to the Court, he says.

By me & Jo Becker https://t.co/g7iNpvOofz

— Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor) November 19, 2022

One of the many things that stood out to me in this stunning @Jo_Becker / @jodikantor piece is the length and depth of Justice Alito’s response.

It’s revealing to me both that he felt impelled to do it, and that there certainly appears to be evidence supporting Schenck’s claims. https://t.co/XP3M5f3y1R

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 19, 2022

Alito and Thomas in a furious race to the bottom. https://t.co/NSpseqPDBF

— RSchooley@socel.net (@Rschooley) November 19, 2022

Here’s Schenk’s letter:

A letter to Chief Justice Roberts that the NYT has had for months accuses Justice Alito of leaking the outcome of the Hobby Lobby decision to anti-abortion donors who dined at his house. Contemporaneous emails corroborate the story; Alito denies it. https://t.co/KoA7q6XN5l pic.twitter.com/PgBzoTcWpW

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 19, 2022

To say this is a problem for the Court is an understatement:

This. The Hobby Lobby leak (by itself) isn’t the story. https://t.co/KrfWo2xZnw

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 19, 2022

Takes two to tango; or be improperly influenced.

The @nytimes headline really buries the lede. ⁦@jodikantor⁩ & ⁦⁦@Jo_Becker⁩'s reporting reveals a highly coordinated effort to influence SCOTUS justices. THAT is the story. Also, why is this breaking on SATURDAY morning, @nytimes? https://t.co/kNECT5SXhD

— Melissa Murray (@ProfMMurray) November 19, 2022

Impeachment and removal are never going to happen. The only recourse is to increase the size of the Court in the next Biden administration. How many more KJB’s can we find?

I read this one segment three times before moving on. https://t.co/ygpbcsB2xf pic.twitter.com/diJBYkUrvL

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) November 19, 2022

Supreme Court accused of leaking 2014 anti-choice ruling to religious leaders weeks before it was made public: report https://t.co/RIcyARNpvO

— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 19, 2022

"Mr. Schenck said Mrs. Wright told him that the decision would be favorable to Hobby Lobby, and that Justice Alito had written the majority opinion. Three weeks later, that’s exactly what happened. The court ruled, in a 5-4 vote, that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance covering contraception violated their religious freedoms," the report states with Alito issuing a statement saying that "he and his wife shared a 'casual and purely social relationship' with the Wrights, and did not dispute that the two couples ate together on June 3, 2014. But the justice said that the 'allegation that the Wrights were told the outcome of the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, or the authorship of the opinion of the Court, by me or my wife, is completely false.'"

Which would be credible, except:

"Schenck said he was told the outcome of the 2014 case weeks before it was announced. He used that information to prepare a public relations push, records show, and he said that at the last minute he tipped off the president of Hobby Lobby, the craft store chain owned by Christian evangelicals that was the winning party in the case."

Schenk got it from somebody.