Justice Samuel Alito Leaked Hobby Lobby Decision On Contraception In 2014: Report

[Fugus]

Came across this which I think is pretty relevant to current events.

Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito allegedly told private dinner companions how the high court would rule in the landmark 2014 case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, according to a bombshell report in The New York Times.

The dinner companions, who were wealthy donors to an evangelical Christian nonprofit, reportedly tipped off the minister who led the nonprofit, Rev. Rob Schenck, who told the Times he later informed the CEO of Hobby Lobby.

Schenck also used the information “undetectably” to assist “in preparing for the inevitable announcement” of the court’s decision, which he wrote in a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this year which was obtained and published by the Times.

The minister, whose beliefs have changed in recent years, provided “thousands” of emails and other records to the Times showing how he campaigned for decades to lay the legal groundwork for the Supreme Court to eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.

The 2014 contraception case prompted the court to decide whether requiring a company to provide contraception as part of its health coverage violated religious freedom protections. Hobby Lobby’s conservative Christian owners said they were opposed to contraception use. The result was a victory for the craft store chain and religious conservatives ― much like the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, rolling back abortion rights for millions of people.

Alito denies tipping the court’s hand eight years ago, the Times reported.

But the accusation comes at a contentious moment where swaths of the nation have already begun questioning the court’s legitimacy and its station above politics.

Alito himself weighed in on that criticism in September when he said that “saying or implying that the court is becoming an illegitimate institution or questioning our integrity crosses an important line.” Last week, he walked onstage to thunderous applause from conservatives gathered at a 40th anniversary gala for the Federalist Society, which has worked to place right-wing justices on the Supreme Court.

Schenck turned whistleblower this year after the Supreme Court’s monumental decision against abortion rights was leaked in draft form to Politico, sparking nationwide protests. Roberts said the court was investigating that leak, but no further developments have been shared with the public.

In his letter to the chief justice, Schenck wrote, “Considering there may be a severe penalty to be paid by whoever is responsible for the initial leak of the recent draft opinion, I thought this previous incident might bear some consideration by you and others involved in the process.”

He added: “Of course, I would be happy to fully cooperate should you find any value in other details surrounding what I have transmitted here.”

Schenck signed the letter, “Yours in the interest of truth and fairness.”

He told The New York Times he has not received any response.

Schenck has long been a controversial figure. He was arrested in 1992 for helping to thrust a human fetus in a clear plastic container at Bill Clinton, then a presidential contender, while he was out in New York City.

The minister no longer subscribes to hard-right views on reproductive rights, though. In 2019 he penned an editorial for the Times explaining himself, saying that his experiences speaking with poor and struggling parents in Alabama jails helped shift his perspective.

“I can no longer pretend that telling poor pregnant women they have just one option — give birth and try your luck raising a child, even though the odds are stacked against you — is ‘pro-life’ in any meaningful sense,” he wrote. The religious right’s obsession with gun rights also alienated him.

While the Hobby Lobby leak has not been previously reported, parts of Schenck’s anti-abortion campaign, which he called “Operation Higher Court,” have already been published in outlets such as Politico and Rolling Stone.

Schenck set up his campaign operations in a building right by the Supreme Court. He told Politico that between 1995 and 2018, he arranged to fly about 20 couples to socialize with Alito and his fellow ultraconservatives on the bench: Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

As he told the Times, the goal was to strengthen the conservative justices’ resolve to put out hardline opinions.

[Edge-]

Oh boy, so Alito appears likely to be a repeat-offender when it comes to SCOTUS leaks. Who would have ever thought!?

[Captain N]

It's almost like Alito is bad at keeping secrets, and he hates women.

[Draco-Onis]

Oh boy, so Alito appears likely to be a repeat-offender when it comes to SCOTUS leaks. Who would have ever thought!?

I am sure right wing media who was calling for all kinds of repercussions for the leaker will follow through now /s

[D Luniz]

well that explains why the RW mobs put their pitchforks and torches away quickly and quietly on "finding the leaker"
Alito must have told them

[Gestopft]

Ugh we have to wait until 2030 before we get the same scoop on Dobbs now?

[Iphie]

So...can he be impeached for this?

[Endus]

So...can he be impeached for this?

He can be impeached over anything, technically. There are no ethical standards that you could proceed objectively on, any impeachment of a SCOTUS justice is entirely, 100% partisan and political.

Which, yes, is a really big fuckin' problem, and a failure of US institutions.

[Iphie]

He can be impeached over anything, technically. There are no ethical standards that you could proceed objectively on, any impeachment of a SCOTUS justice is entirely, 100% partisan and political.

Which, yes, is a really big fuckin' problem, and a failure of US institutions.

Why is it that the more I learn about US society and institutions the more I wonder how anyone ever came to the conclusion that the US is the 'greatest nation™' in the world?

[Fugus]

Why is it that the more I learn about US society and institutions the more I wonder how anyone ever came to the conclusion that the US is the 'greatest nation™' in the world?

Anyone who claims that either has never been to the US any in the past 30 years or has only lived in the US and never left it to see another developer nation or lives in the US and is rich with no clue how people living in the reality the majority live in.

There is a reason why we fail every single metric that is meaningful to the average citizen and only excel at the military and metrics important to companies and the rich.

[Edge-]

Why is it that the more I learn about US society and institutions the more I wonder how anyone ever came to the conclusion that the US is the 'greatest nation™' in the world?

That's always been a ton of malarky.

But to your point, the system was built with the belief that people would, by and large, act in good faith. Which Republicans have long since given up on doing, and that the government hasn't decended to total chaos despite their best efforts is a testament to the resiliency of institutions and the dedicated work of career, nonpartisan government employees.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Why is it that the more I learn about US society and institutions the more I wonder how anyone ever came to the conclusion that the US is the 'greatest nation™' in the world?

The founding fathers never accounted for severe partisan politics. They knew there would always be disagreements, but the entire design of the US government is based upon representation of the people, as well as compromise.

Many people *cough*conservatives*cough* thinks our government design is just fine and doesn't need to change. And yet, it does need to change drastically to account for severe partisanship. Eternal gridlock and a non-functioning government are objectively bad for the people.

But it's going to take some kind of major earth shattering event for our government to change to a severe degree. A civil war, a global war where the US sustains severe damages, things like that.

[Fugus]

The founding fathers never accounted for severe partisan politics. They knew there would always be disagreements, but the entire design of the US government is based upon representation of the people, as well as compromise.

Many people *cough*conservatives*cough* thinks our government design is just fine and doesn't need to change. And yet, it does need to change drastically to account for severe partisanship. Eternal gridlock and a non-functioning government are objectively bad for the people.

But it's going to take some kind of major earth shattering event for our government to change to a severe degree. A civil war, a global war where the US sustains severe damages, things like that.

Or potentially the conservatives pushing it to such a severe extreme that the public backlash destroys them at the polls while creating a massive backlash to fix this shit so they can't do it again in the future.

There is a reason why they filibustered HR1, because they know once stuff like that gets implemented they are done as the majority rejects them and they know it.

[tehdang]

Came across this which I think is pretty relevant to current events.

So an actual established religious crank now has breathtaking news from 8 years ago. News at 11.

[Fugus]

So an actual established religious crank now has breathtaking news from 8 years ago. News at 11.

News from 8 years ago relevant and giving context to recent events, so yeah, news at 11.

[PickleballAce]

Why is it that the more I learn about US society and institutions the more I wonder how anyone ever came to the conclusion that the US is the 'greatest nation™' in the world?

That's always been more of an indictment against the rest of the world.

[Gestopft]

So an actual established religious crank now has breathtaking news from 8 years ago. News at 11.

More like: news from 8 years ago gives a strong indication that this summer's "leak" was anything but.

[enigma77]

Why is it that the more I learn about US society and institutions the more I wonder how anyone ever came to the conclusion that the US is the 'greatest nation™' in the world?

The one great thing is the US military. That's a really great institution. The rest is deeply flawed and needs massive reforms.

[Draco-Onis]

The one great thing is the US military. That's a really great institution. The rest is deeply flawed and needs massive reforms.

The tile of "greatest nation in the world" has no validity because we just gave it to ourselves and propaganda it to death. We aren't the greatest by any metric aside from our guns.

[Endus]

The one great thing is the US military. That's a really great institution. The rest is deeply flawed and needs massive reforms.

The same US military that chews up poor kids and kicks them back out to die homeless in the streets suffering from PTSD? The same one with massive sexual assault problems it actively avoids handling properly? The same one that has veterans rely on the VA for medical care, a system so wildly insufficient that it for many it may as well not exist?