LIPTON-LUBET SLAMS OUT-OF-TOUCH DOBBS LEAK PROBE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 19, 2023) — Today, the results of the Supreme Court’s internal investigation of this May’s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization were released. The investigation unfolded as millions of Americans suffered the consequences of the Court’s decision in Dobbs overturning the constitutional right to abortion. The final report fails to identify the individual who leaked the draft opinion.

In response to the news, Take Back the Court released the following statement on behalf of its president, Sarah Lipton-Lubet:

“As Justice Alito and his right-wing colleagues promote the results of their sham investigation, we should not lose sight of the irony of this probe: that the Court has lamented the violation of its own purported ‘right to privacy’ at the same time it dismantled this very same right for pregnant people across the country in order to rip away their access to abortion.
“At the same time, the question remains: were Justices Thomas and Alito, perhaps the most ethically dubious justices on the bench — who reportedly had extensive contact with outside anti-abortion forces prior to the Dobbs decision — interviewed? The report doesn't say, and the Court must be asked. Given what we know about Alito and Thomas, if nobody talked to them directly, that seems like an admission by omission.
“As millions of people suffer the consequences of the stolen Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, the out-of-touch institution has concerned itself not with the harm it has perpetrated but instead with its own internal machinations — with how the proverbial sausage is made. Let’s be clear: this conservative Court is sitting in an ivory tower as it denies people their fundamental human rights and undermines democracy. Its disconnect from the public it is supposed to serve has never been on clearer display.”