Dershowitz: ‘There’s Never Been a Leak Like This’
Monday night’s leaked Supreme Court draft to unravel the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion appears not only to be authentic, but a deliberate attempt to “pressure” the justices, constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax.
“This has the sign of authenticity,” Dershowitz told Monday’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “It also to me, and this is just a theory, but I think it’s maybe correct: The leak was very deliberately – perhaps by a law clerk who was very strongly opposed to reversing Roe v. Wade – seeking to make it public now so that pressure could be put on the Supreme Court, either by an act of Congress to pack the court, or an act of Congress making a federal legislative right of every woman to have an abortion based on the Commerce Clause.”
Dershowitz, who has 57 years’ experience with the Supreme Court, having been a clerk and a Harvard Law professor, added that “in all the years I’ve been following the Supreme Court, there’s never been a leak like this.”
“But this was not just an inadvertent leak,” Dershowitz told host Rob Schmitt as the news was breaking from the Politico-leaked draft. “I think this was an act of civil disobedience engaged in by a determined law clerk who thought it was so serious that a woman’s right to abortion will be taken away that they were willing to risk their bar, their career, their heritage on this, because this is going to be investigated.”
The leaker – potentially trying to be a “hero of the left” – Politico, and the reporter are sure to be investigated amid an unprecedented set of circumstances, according to Dershowitz.
“The FBI is going to be called in,” he continued. “There’s going to be an attempt to break the journalist privilege. There’s going to be an attempt to call Politico and demand of them that they reveal the source.
“Politico won’t do it, but the case may go all the way to the Supreme Court on that issue as well.”
Dershowitz noted Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, his own law student, has to be frustrated he has lost control amid years of partisan attacks on the independence and balance of the court.
“This is a monumental day,” Dershowitz said. “Chief Justice Roberts is just so upset, I can imagine, because he’s lost control. People will think, at least, he’s lost control of the court.”
While the leaker might become a “hero of the left,” Dershowitz said, adding, if revealed, “they won’t be practicing law anymore.”
“They will be disbarred if this comes to light, and we may never know who leaked it, but we may find out, and that person will lose her or his career but will become a hero to the left,” Dershowitz said. “So it’s a very important day in Supreme Court history.
“It will also result in a tightening up of the hiring of law clerks and making it explicitly a crime to reveal information from the inner workings of the Supreme Court. In all my years of following the Supreme Court and being a professor, nothing like this has ever occurred.”
Dershowitz, knowing the writings of Justice Samuel Alito – who wrote the draft majority opinion that was leaked – said there is just a 2% chance this is a “fake” news report.
“There’s a 2% chance there’s no truth to this – that somebody created a fake story – but I can’t imagine that Politico would risk its reputation,” Dershowitz said.
Ultimately, “the dignity of the Supreme Court in the United States,” Dershowitz said, “suffered a terrible blow today.”
“The argument is really about the power of the Supreme Court to change 50 years of law simply based on new justices being appointed, and that’s going to be upsetting to Stare Decisis – the concept that you leave the law alone unless there are compelling reasons for changing,” Dershowitz concluded.
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I will make no attempt to address all his points.
His statement that Justice Roberts has ”lost control” is exactly correct. personally, one wonders if he ever had control.
As to the Court suffering “a terrible blow”, saying it was sabotage may be extreme; however, it is very close.