WHODUNIT?

Justice Samuel Alito Denies Leaking Supreme Court’s 2014 Birth Control Decision

The justice hit back at a New York Times report in which a former anti-abortion advocate claimed he learned of the decision weeks before it was made public.

Justice Samuel Alito is dodging any responsibility for an alleged leak before a landmark 2014 ruling on birth control access under the Affordable Care Act—one that has raised questions about a similar leak of the Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade this year. On Saturday, The New York Times reported that a former anti-abortion leader, Rev. Rob Schenck, claimed he learned of the Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores weeks before it was made public. Schenck said that in June 2014, conservative donor Gayle Wright contacted him, told him she’d dined with Alito and his wife, and then disclosed the outcome of the case. The majority decision, penned by Alito (who also penned the majority decision in Dobbs), declared that the for-profit company’s religious leanings were enough to exclude them from the ACA’s birth control requirements. But Alito says Schenck’s got it wrong: “The allegation that the Wrights were told the outcome of the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, or the authorship of the opinion of the Court, by me or my wife is completely false,” Alito said in a statement on Sunday. Meanwhile, the hunt for the SCOTUS leaker continues...