US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blasted leaks of the court’s opinion on Roe v. Wade earlier this year, saying it made conservative SCOTUS judges targets for assassination.
“It was a great betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock, because nothing like that had happened in the past, so it certainly changed the atmosphere at the court for the remainder of last term,” Alito said Tuesday in a discussion with the Heritage Foundation.
“The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority in support of overruling Roe and Casey targets for assassination, because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us,” he stated.
The unprecedented leaked draft opinion revealing the Supreme Court would soon be overturning Roe v. Wade federal abortion protections sparked demonstrations across the nation, with radical left-wing protesters staging protests at the homes of conservative justices, including outside Alito’s home.
The following month, an armed 26-year-old man who had traveled from California to Maryland was arrested outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with charging documents saying he intended to kill the Trump-appointed judge.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas echoed Alito’s sentiments in the days following the leak, saying any “trust” bestowed to the judicial institution was “gone forever.”
In the wake of the leak, Chief Justice John Roberts also called it a “betrayal of the confidences of the court…intended to undermine the integrity of our operations.”
Thus far, over five months later, there has been no publicly available information on the investigation into the identity of the person who leaked the Roe draft opinion.
It’s suspected the opinion was leaked by a rogue staffer to galvanize support for Democrats, as abortion is a top issue heading into the 2022 midterms.
