Recent Supreme Court leaks reveal internal deliberations on three cases involving former President Donald Trump and target Chief Justice John Roberts.
The New York Times obtained internal memos dating to last February, claiming the information shows that Roberts “molded” the cases.
In a February 22 memo from Roberts to his colleagues, the Chief Justice wrote that the lower court “failed to grapple with the most difficult questions altogether.” The case pertained to Trump’s trial and presidential immunity.
According to The Times, Roberts made great efforts to “steer rulings that benefited Mr. Trump.”
The outlet claimed that Roberts’ memo showed he was “sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s arguments.” The Times further argued that Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh had previously worked to “protect presidential power” during their years as White House lawyers.
Former senior Justice Department official James Burnham of King Street Legal told Fox News Digital that the release of the memos is “enormously destructive.”
“It’s destructive because the justices can’t be candid with each other if they think that anything they say could end up in the New York Times. And that means they’re going to speak less to each other. It means they’re not going to be able to deliberate with the same openness that they historically have, and it ultimately undermines the court’s decision making,” he explained.
Burnham added that The Times’ piece reads as if “somebody is trying to cast a negative light on the Chief Justice and the other justices in the majority for what I think was a plainly correct and brave decision.”
Judicial Crisis Network Carrie Severino noted that the piece serves as a “left-wing PR campaign against the Court.”
Severino emphasized on X that “terrible leaks of confidential Court documents like this are deliberately aimed at intimidating and pressuring the originalist justices into changing their opinions on key cases in the future.” She added if justices do not change their opinions to appease the mob, their “reputations will be dragged through the mud and they will subjected to targeted harassment and even potential violence.”
Josh Blackman wrote in Reason that the leak of the memos is “far worse” than the Dobbs leak, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Blackman explained that the Trump leaks are “systematic and thorough.”
“We have insights of confidential memoranda, detailed conversations at conferences, KBJ’s changed vote, Justice Alito losing the Fischer majority, and information about many Roberts clerks were working on the case,” he wrote.
Mike Davis, the founder of the Article III Project, wrote on X that Roberts’ decisions and lead in the cases showed that he understood “Democrats’ unprecedented lawfare and election interference against Trump.”
He added that the leak highlights that the Demcorat justices are “very bitter about being in the minority for the rest of their lives, so they just want to destroy the legitimacy of the Court.”
