Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration reportedly does not view this week’s widely condemned leak of an initial draft of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion about its upcoming ruling on the controversial Roe v. Wade decision as a crime.
Justice Samuel Alito writes in the draft, in which the court strikes down Roe v. Wade, that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start” and that “we hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.”
The leak — which shocked the political and legal worlds with many noting the disastrous ramifications that it will have on trust within the Supreme Court — is apparently not viewed as criminal by the Biden administration.
“Administration officials said the Justice Department’s view, at this early stage, is that the leak did not constitute a federal crime,” NBC News reported. “Accordingly, neither the FBI nor other federal law enforcement organizations are involved in any investigation, the officials said.”
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who served in the role during two Republican administrations and who was previously praised by Biden as being “one of the best” he ever worked with, said this week that the leak could absolutely constitute a crime and that a special counsel may need to be appointed to get to the bottom of what happened.
“It could be obstructing the administration of justice, the due process of justice,” Barr said. “Obstruction means you’re attempting to influence, you know, through some kind of wrongdoing.”
Barr said that he did not think that it was a “stretch” to think that criminal charges could be filed in the case.
“I think they should spare no effort to get to the bottom of what happened,” Barr said. “Once you expose the Court to this kind of popular pressure and sort of potential mob psychology, it’ll divert them from reaching a principled decision based on the merits. We go to a lot of trouble in our system to insulate the court so that they can do what they think is just under the law and, you know, this means that we’re going to have sort of this street justice played out in front of the Supreme Court when they’re considering controversial cases.”
Chief Justice John Roberts called the leak a “betrayal of the confidences of the Court” that “was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations” in a statement Tuesday.
“This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here,” Roberts said. “I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.”