New Details Show Leak Of Supreme Court’s Roe Reversal Could Have Come From Pretty Much Anyone

Failures

from the safe-as-unlocked-abandoned-houses dept

The leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision helped everyone. It helped people who supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade consolidate their power so they could effectively punish people for trying to escape unwanted pregnancies. It helped supporters of abortion rights prepare for the coming wave of anti-abortion legislation, much of it containing Dobbs-dependent triggers.

The identity of the person who leaked the decision is still unknown. That nearly everyone on either side of the issue had the motivation to give the nation a sneak preview of the precedent headed their way. Given that the list of suspects continues to include anyone with access to the decision, it’s unlikely the leaker will ever be named and shamed/praised.

But there are much more banal and tragically comical reasons the leaker may never be discovered. As CNN reports, SCOTUS security measures (at least in terms of draft opinions, etc.) range from “lax” to “nonexistent.”

The investigation report [PDF] released publicly does not contain these details. These come from a number of sources familiar with the inner workings of the Supreme Court and the habits of the justices who serve the nation’s top court.

None of this looks good.

New details revealed to CNN by multiple sources familiar with the court’s operations offer an even more detailed picture of yearslong lax internal procedures that could have endangered security, led to the leak and hindered an investigation into the culprit.

Supreme Court employees also used printers that didn’t produce logs – or were able to print sensitive documents off-site without tracking – and “burn bags” meant to ensure the safe destruction of materials were left open and unattended in hallways.

“This has been going on for years,” one former employee said.

No one expects Supreme Court justices to be tech wizards, but one would expect a basic level of competence. And things like leaving burn bags unattended and unsealed has nothing to do with understanding tech intricacies and everything to do with assuming no one has any interest in Supreme Court documents until they’re officially released.

The use of personal email addresses — something else detailed in the CNN report — appears to be nothing more than justices using the option they felt most comfortable using, even if they were aware more secure options were available. You can’t FOIA the Supreme Court, so this isn’t a malicious attempt to keep otherwise public information out of the public’s hands.

The lack of secured access to printers, however, is more concerning. This can’t be pinned solely on SCOTUS justices’ carelessness. That’s a backend problem that should have been handled by the court’s IT department. But this method of controlling document distribution (a method used to track down leakers working for other government agencies) was apparently never fully implemented. And, again, the most obvious explanation for this is that no one handling document security ever thought anything of public interest was being printed by the court or its staffers.

Now, everyone’s finding out just how wrong they were about the possibility that draft opinions might walk out of the building. Once assumed to be hovering near zero percent, the likelihood of a future opinion overturning years of precedent making its way to the public before the Supreme Court is ready to release it is steadily gaining votes for “Most Likely To Happen.”

On top of smuggling docs out to ignite partisan fires, there are other concerns the Supreme Court needs to address. The nation’s top court also hears cases dealing with national security issues. Given its nonexistent control of information flowing into the court, the only surprising thing about the Dobbs leak is that the nation’s top court hasn’t been the source of leaks detailing surveillance efforts or overseas operations.

Filed Under: burn bags, dobbs, leak, supreme court