Well, here we are. Just over 24 hours since the leak of the Alito Roe v Wade draft decision, and as I predicted yesterday, all hell has broken loose. And the Great SCOTUS Leaker Witch Hunt is on.
Mitch McConnell avoided the actual text of the draft ruling like a scalded cat. Instead, he honed in on the GOP outrage over the leak. He deplored the leak, and applauded the Chief Justice saying that he was starting an investigation into the leak. And if the leaker is found, McConnell said that he Hopes that that person is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Escuze Moi? What the hell are you talking about Mitch? Prosecuted to the full extent of what law exactly? That leak was of a first draft written by a Supreme Court justice. And the last time I checked, the SCOTUS was not listed as a part of the National Security team.
Obviously, the Supreme Court works in circumstances of extreme secrecy. And they require secrecy to keep compelling, and in some cases controversial rulings from leaking in advance. But I don’t remember ever hearing that any SCOTUS documents are are subject to national security clearances. There are no classified, Secret, or Top Secret Supreme Court papers out there.
Of course the Supreme Court has its own internal regulations and guidelines, but those are administered by the Supreme Court. And if the leaker is found to have been a court clerk, or an aide, or a staff member, of course they would be subject to immediate termination.
And so I ask, exactly what legal consequences is McConnell looking for her? SCOTUS rules and regulations are internal, and must be dealt with in house. A leaker can certainly be terminated immediately. But what kind of charges is McConnell looking for here? National Security violations? Those documents aren’t classified. So what exactly does McConnell want to do, send somebody to Guantanamo Bay for violating internal regulations?
This is just another primo example of GOP obfuscation bullshit. You’re personally embarrassed by an uncomfortable revelation, and since you can’t defend it, you start throwing ink around for the base like an octopus. He may get away with it with the base, but the rest of us know it’s just bullshit.
Know what that tells me, Murf? That this leak was the LAST thing McConnell and Co needed right now. They were likely already sweating bullets over what the J6 Committee was going to roll out next month. But add the possible overturn of Roe V Wade on top of it? That’s like spraying a gallon of jet fuel on a warehouse fire.
Any apathy over the midterms for Dems DIED last night. Let’s make them pay for it.
Oh! No question about it!!! They wanted the decision to come out as late as possible to minimalize protests…
I think you’re correct about the timing part. We figured this was coming and for all the secrecy about Court deliberations you will never, ever convince me that word wasn’t slipped to Yertle and a couple of other key players where the vote stood. Having all those GOP assholes stalling to push the televised Jan. 6 hearings to sometime in June (the committee still won’t have obtained evidence they should have had long ago but their hand is forced – they have to have their hearings to get a report out in time) was the plan. He knows his politics and the GOP I’m sure was counting on ONE bad month of outrage over Roe v Wade being overturned competing with outrage over what the hearings will reveal. All bad for the GOP but journalists were facing a helluva quandry on how to cover two such massive, ongoing stories at the same time.
However, with this leak the media has a pass for a month to cover the hell out of the short and long-term consequences of what the Federalist Society Fascists on the Court had planned to do.
I truly believe McConnell was counting on split attention of the public on two massive and not good for the GOP stories, and then what will be the first sort of normal summer vacation season diffusing attention and anger as the GOP prepped its fall message of wedge issue campaigning they have proven so good at. With the media obsessed with inflation (which will be an issue in the fall) McConnell figured he and the GOP had a good plan in place to take over Congress. Now? That’s shot to hell.
The question becomes who leaked the opinion and why. The more I hear punditry the more I’m convinced it came from Alito or one of his cohorts. It’s pretty clear Roberts would probably have been on board with upholding the Mississippi law which was the actual case before the Court. However in talking with the other GOP appointees he had to have known before the conference before the initial vote was taken five of them had decided to reject the Roberts approach of continued incremental weakening of access to abortion and go nuclear. All indications are it’s a five to four split with Roberts siding with our side. Hell, he’s probably the one who tipped off McConnell so that Yertle could craft the strategy I outlined!
This could spell electoral disaster for the GOP this fall. With the new gerrymandering and voter suppression laws we can’t hope for a 2018 type wave but real gains in both the House and Senate are now possible. Again, you will never convince me that even if not in direct conversations Yertle and Roberts were worried about the electoral implications this fall. So Roberts has probably been gently working behind the scenes to flip either Gorsuch or Kavanaugh (or both) to abandon overturning Roe right now (hell, it’s not like other cases aren’t in the pipeline to take up next term!) and sticking to only upholding the Mississippi law.
That’s the case that’s been being made – someone in the RWNJ wing of the Court seeing Roberts getting his way and deciding the best way to shore up a five to four vote to overturn Roe was to publicly put the conservative Justices on the hot seat. If any of them back down now there will be hell to pay. It would have been one thing for them to go along with Roberts from the get go, but to initially vote to grant the religious/social nutjobs’ wet dream and overturn Roe only to backtrack would tear apart the GOP.
I know you have strong doubts about this theory but I think it has merit. The investigation into the leak will be pro forma and no leaker will be uncovered. My guess is that McConnell knows this, and actually will orchestrate a much broader distraction campaign to make the leak the story instead of the Court’s devastating decision to for the first time strip away such a hugely personal right.
“That’s the case that’s been being made – someone in the RWNJ wing of the Court seeing Roberts getting his way and deciding the best way to shore up a five to four vote to overturn Roe was to publicly put the conservative Justices on the hot seat. If any of them back down now there will be hell to pay.”
Um, WHAT “hell to pay?” The Justices, once elevated to the Court, are there for LIFE (or until they choose to retire early). The only option to get them off against their will is–duh, duh, DUHN–impeachment and the process is identical to impeaching a President: The House brings articles (by a simple majority) and the Senate holds a trial with removal coming only with a two-thirds majority vote.
The cons might take the impeachment option but they’d need to have both a majority in the House AND they’d need 67 votes in the Senate (or 2/3 of whatever number is actually “present and voting”) to toss the Justice off the Court.
As for our side, I can’t imagine impeachment would result from one of the con judges suddenly realizing they’ve broken the far-right’s judiciary mantra (“Thou shalt not legislate from the bench”) by going along with Alito’s “opinion.”
They didn’t want this decision. Not this way. And not before all the primaries.
But now they have to deal with all the VERY unhappy voters, including a lot of Rs.
And they have NO plan in place.
Dems should get down on their knees and thank the leaker—nothing like some ammo for the midterms ar a time when it’s sorely needed.
I’m pretty sure McConnell is well aware that this leak is not prosecutable – yet – if they establish their autocracy you’d better believe it would be (possibly will be – they have no respect for ex post facto). But his poorly educated base has no clue what is and is not prosecutable. They appear to think whether any action is or is not prosecutable depends on the skin tone and/or political sentiments of the the actor. (They also believe that anything which is prosecutable, no matter how insignificant, deserves the death penalty.)
About the only thing they could do to the leaker if a clerk his fire him other with a bad letter of recommendation. Of course,,that means liberal law firms will compete to hire that person. I have pointed out that justices and clerks don’t often handle anything classified,,so it isn’t even remotely treason. You cannot hang someone for something that isn,’t a crime.