The Supreme Court justice said he believes he knows who leaked the draft of his decision nearly two months before it was finalised.
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, author of the court’s ruling to overturn abortion rights , said on Friday that he and other conservative justices were “targets of assassination” after the decision was leaked last year. Alito told the Wall Street Journal in a rare interview that he believes he knows who leaked the draft of his decision nearly two months before it was finalised, but he doesn’t have proof. The unprecedented leak of the so-called Dobbs case on May 2, 2022 rocked the country, both over what it meant for abortion rights and the implication that politics had permeated the court, which sees itself above the partisan fray. “I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody,” Alito told the Journal. “It was a part of an effort to prevent the Dobbs draft … from becoming the decision of the court,” he said. US Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill for now After a sweeping investigation, in January the court said it could not pinpoint the source of the leak. Alito said it led to the near-attack on Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was viewed by some as a possible swing voter on the abortion rights issue. An armed man was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s suburban Washington home in the early morning hours of June 8.
