Senate reviewing allegations of another SCOTUS leak

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Saturday that his committee is reviewing “serious allegations” of a leak of a 2014 Supreme Court opinion before it was published. A former pro-life leader, Rev. Rob Schenck, told The New York Times that he learned the outcome of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, written by Justice Samuel Alito, before the court released it. Senators are now calling for the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics.

Where did he get this leaked opinion? In the Times story, Schenck said the leaked information came from a woman named Gayle Wright, who had dinner with her husband, Justice Alito, and his wife before the decision was released. In a written statement to the Times, Alito emphatically denied that he had disclosed the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case. Wright told the Times that she never obtained or shared the information. The Times also published a letter Schenck said he wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts in July, alerting him to the alleged breach years ago. Schenck, who has recanted his pro-life beliefs, wrote that he thought the information might be relevant as part of a probe into the leak of the Dobbs decision—which was also written by Justice Alito.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard’s Legal Docket report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how the leaked Dobbs draft opinion is sowing discord on the Supreme Court.