Roberts urged to call in FBI after second Supreme Court leak emerges
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Legendary baseball player and manager Ted Williams once wrote a letter to Angels outfielder Jay Johnstone about improving his hitting. His advice included “you just need to cover the plate with two strikeouts.”
This week, as another leak of classified information shook the Supreme Court, I was reminded of Williams’ advice not to strike. (Previous leak dobbs decision remained unresolved). According to Chief Justice John Roberts, the message is clear: In times like these, you need to protect the plate.
Roberts, of course, is famous for his own baseball analogies. In his confirmation, he said, “Referees are like referees. Referees don’t make the rules. They enforce them… Nobody went to a match to see the referee.”
((win McNamee/Getty Images))
But judges set rules not only in new precedents but also in the operation of the court system. These rules are being broken.
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Judge Sonia Sotomayor in new leak from same week attacked his colleague Brett Kavanaugh essentially stars as an out-of-touch sycophant who has never even met an hourly wage worker. This was an unjust insult and a departure from the Court’s long-standing rules of civility. (Sotomayor later apologized).
Additionally, Mollie Hemingway’s upcoming book about Justice Samuel Alito includes an embarrassing account of how Justice Elena Kagan allegedly yelled so loudly at Justice Stephen Breyer before his trial. dobbs The “wall was shaking” view. (The book suggests that Kagan was upset that Breyer agreed to encourage dissidents to bring out the final views, in light of the escalating threats to her conservative colleagues in the wake of the leak).
For an institution that prides itself on its secrecy and insularity, the Court appears increasingly porous and biased in these leaks. To make matters worse, people actually come to the Court “to see the referees”.
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The latest leak was published by. New York Times, given internally notes Comments were heard from several Supreme Court justices regarding the use of what is known as a “shadow docket” to make decisions without oral argument.
Specifically, the leaks occurred following a controversial speech by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at Yale Law School, in which he condemned the use of shadow dockets by his conservative colleagues to explain decisions that were sometimes “totally unreasonable.”
Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, showing off his impeccable hitting form even in the Red Sox at-bat, swings and misses off the batting tree in the 1st inning of the Yanks-Red Sox game on April 26. Yankee catcher Yogi Berra holds on to the ball as umpire Joe Paparella watches. The pitcher was Tom Sturdivant. (Getty Images)
The notes suggest the justices found the Environmental Protection Agency was effectively gaming the system and that Michigan v. It raises concerns that it imposes illegal regulatory burdens on electric utilities, despite the earlier countervailing decision in the EPA case.
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Chief Justice Roberts noted that the EPA is using ongoing litigation to force utilities to spend billions of dollars to comply with new regulations: “In other words, the absence of a stay has allowed the agency to effectively implement a significant program that we believe is unlawful.”
The discussion about the use of the shadow file is irrelevant to this story. Roberts’ most immediate concern must be that this is the second attack: another leak from within the Court clearly designed to injure some of its members.
Unlike dobbs leak (which appeared to be an attempt to influence the final opinion), this is a leak about a decade-old case. He had a purely malicious purpose to embarrass or disturb the court.
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The question again is the identity of the criminal. There is no reason to assume the same person was involved in both leaks. Rather, the leaks appear to reflect a broken culture at the Court.
Later dobbs Following the leak, Chief Justice Roberts launched a fruitless investigation through federal marshals to find the person responsible. The use of police chiefs (rather than the FBI) as lead investigators was criticized at the time. Roberts may have been sensitive to an executive branch wandering around a sister branch’s highest court.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks at the 2025 Supreme Court Fellows Program at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, on February 13, 2025. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / POOL / AFP) (Photo: JACQUELYN MARTIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) (JACQUELYN MARTIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The result was the worst possible outcome. The criminal managed to both leak the opinion and evade any responsibility.
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The truth is that the Court’s culture and institutional identity have always been the paramount protection of confidentiality. In a city afloat on a choppy sea of leakage, the Court was an island of honesty and decency. “Umpires” can call balls and strikes without playing the leak game.
This culture is quickly becoming a relic after another major leak. For the future of the court and the public’s faith, Roberts needs to put aside his reservations and enlist the FBI to find the culprit. Most importantly, it needs to guarantee full transparency, allowing the public to see the results wherever they lead. In other words, Roberts needs to cover the plate with two strikeouts.
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