'Intimate details' of SCOTUS infighting revealed through latest leak: reports

29 July 2024

On the same day President Joe Biden is expected to announce reforms to the Supreme Court of the United States, "a new damaging leak" regarding the justice's abortion rulings was reported early Monday morning exclusively by CNN, according to the Daily Beast.

In June, Bloomberg first reported that the court's ruling in a high-profile abortion-related case was briefly posted to SCOTUS' website, "in which it appeared as if the Court would allow for emergency abortions to be performed in Idaho despite the Gem State's ban on abortions."

At the time, "The author of the opinion and a breakdown of how individual justices voted on the decision" was not yet known.

Now, CNN has "learned the split was 6-3, with all six Republican-nominated conservatives backing Idaho, over objections from the three Democratic-appointed liberals" — which the Beast notes "should be a secret."

Per the Beast, "Intimate details of months of disagreement among the nine justices was reported at length by CNN Monday, just hours after" Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris committed backing "major reforms to the court, with the president accusing justices of being 'above the law.'"

The high court originally decided the case in January, according to CNN, taking "the extraordinary step of letting Idaho enforce its ban on abortion with an exception only to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, despite an ongoing challenge from the Biden administration arguing that it intruded on federal protections for emergency room care."

However, CNN reports people familiar with the matter told the news outlet that "over the next six months," a slew "of misgivings among key conservatives and rare leverage on the part of liberal justices changed the course of the case."

The Beast notes that "among the leaked facts were that after a public hearing on the case in April, the justices’ private vote revealed no clear majority for resolution," and that Chief Justice John "Roberts then abandoned normal protocol and did not assign the writing of the majority decision to any of the justices, leading to months of negotiations."

Furthermore, CNN reports the string "of negotiations led to an eventual compromise decision limiting the Idaho law and temporarily forestalling further limits on abortion access from the high court."

Despite the eventual compromise, the Beast emphasizes, "Such a lengthy and extensive leak of internal disagreements and the specifics of procedures and draft opinions are likely to cause extreme concern inside the court and particularly for Roberts."

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required). CNN's report is here.

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