Jay Shackford
Who Leaked the Draft?
Republicans seem obsessed with identifying who leaked the 1st draft of Samuel Alito’s decision overturning Roe v Wade. For a moment, take a look at who really benefits by leaking the Alito draft a good six months before the election. Consider the following:
- Americans have a very short attention span. Remember the messy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Many thought it would be a major issue in the 2022 elections. Hardly anyone is talking about or even remembers Afghanistan. The ruling on abortion, however, could be a decisive issue in the off-year elections. In other words, a few right-wing extremists believed that getting the ruling out early would burn off the some of the steam and outrage on the left, thus making it less of an issue in November.
- Chief Justice John Roberts was reportedly working hard on Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Comey Barrett to make some revisions in the 1st draft -- a decision as now written that would result in a complete ban on abortions in many states by turning over the decisions on the legality of abortions and the rules governing abortions to state legislatures, most of which are controlled conservative Republicans. The Chief Justice was thinking about modifying the 1st draft to allow for abortions in cases where the woman was raped, a victim of incest or in danger of dying by carrying the pregnancy to term. Such radical thinking!
- Republicans want the November election to be a referendum on Joe Biden, and his policies that the GOP will blame for inflation, high gas and food prices, rising crime rates and lawlessness throughout the land. The last thing they want is to make the election a referendum on abortion when 70 percent of American voters support upholding Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.
Considering all the above, my best guess is that the leak came from someone on the right, someone who had access to the 1st draft and someone who has complete disregard for our democratic processes and the deeply held traditions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The leaker, in my opinion, is Ginni Thomas – wife of Justice Clarence Thomas who is known to share his thoughts and opinions with his radical-to-the-core wife.
By leaking the 1st draft, Ginni was, in effect, pressuring Brett and Amy to stay in line with the original Alito draft decision.
Remember, Ginni Thomas sent dozens of emails to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows following the election urging Meadows to do whatever he could to “stop the steal” and overturn the free and fair election of Joe Biden, which he won by a landslide of 7 million votes.
As a local sidebar, Ginni also successfully challenged her hometown city council in Clifton, VA, to take down the "Black Lives Matter" banner in downtown Clifton -- a small town of two blocks, a railroad crossing and a couple of restuarants in the horse country of Fairfax County and close to where I live and play golf. So much for free speech! To add some interesting history to the sleepy town of Clifton, it was also the site where Nancy Reagan had lunch on a regular basis with Washington Post owner Katherine Graham back in the days when Democrats and Republicans actually talked and socialized with one another.
But more importantly, Ginni also admits she participated in the January 6th rally on the Ellipse, although she has denied marching to the Capitol. It’s well known that Ginni Thomas has been active in extreme right-wing causes for decades (raising money and supporting candidates who would make your blood boil), and reportedly has a great influence on her husband’s thinking on major cases. She could have easily copied the 1st draft while old Clarence was snoring away, and nobody, not even her husband, would know it.
Otherwise, it would have to be one of the nine Justices (very doubtful) or one of the Justices’ clerks – a move that, if uncovered, could send them to jail and destroy their careers. If you clerk for a Supreme Court justice, the future is paved with power and riches. Why risk everything when the decision was due to be released within the next six to eight weeks and negotiations between the Justices were already underway to moderate the 1st draft?
As they say, “be careful for what you wish for.” Finding the leaker could boomerang for the Grand Old Party.
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