Last week’s Supreme Court confidentiality breach is under investigation, and a clerk for a conservative judge is the “leading theory,” according to NPR’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.
“That has never, ever occurred before,” Totenberg said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “That could only, in all likelihood, have come from a justice — that I think is less likely — or perhaps one of the clerks.”
“The only one that makes sense is it came from somebody who was afraid that this majority might not hold,” she added.
Last week, a Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked, indicating the high court planned to overturn 1973’s landmark Roe v. Wade case which nationally protected women’s right to abortion and returned the right to vote on abortion laws to states.
Others have argued the opposite of Totenberg, accusing the leak on someone on the left, most likely a clerk, who was unhappy with the draft ruling and wanted to pressure the court into changing its opinion.
The final opinion is expected later this summer.
