And Supreme
Court Justice
Samuel Alito is denying accusations
that he leaked a Supreme Court
decision before
it was publicly announced.
A former evangelical activist is claiming
he knew about the outcome
of a 2014 decision
before it was announced,
according to the New York Times.
In a letter to Chief
Justice John Roberts
this summer that was originally obtained
by The Times.
Reverend Rob
Schneck says he was told by Gayle Wright,
a wealthy political donor,
about the discussion
involving a decision on contraception
and the Affordable Health Care Act.
The letter said Wright
had dinner with Justice Samuel
Alito and his wife and claimed
they spoke about the upcoming ruling.
Now, CNN's
Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue
joins us now.
Arianna, I'm so glad you're here.
And the best Supreme Court
reporters in the country,
obviously, one of the biggest questions
in Washington
for the past
several months has been
who leaked the abortion decision.
But what do we know about this
2014 decision?
And what does this mean for the court
rival, as
you say, this man,
the Reverend Rob Schenck.
He was an opponent of abortion.
And at the time he ran this nonprofit
and basically through donors,
he was trying to get access
to the Supreme Court justices.
And he said in this New York Times
story that back in 2014
he had one of his biggest donors
Gayle Wright
she told him that she was going
to have dinner with the Alito
she was going to ask about this important
pending decision
and try to find out the outcome
and he says that
she called him afterwards
and basically said look
Alito is going to write this
and we're going to win this case.
So flash forward a few years
He, the Reverend Schenck,
has now become a supporter
of abortion rights. Right.
And he learned that Chief Justice
John Roberts
last spring was going
to launch this investigation into
who leaked the
decision overturning Roe.
And he said, look,
I have information
that could be interesting to you.
It's worth
noting, though,
that Justice Alito
issued a really strong
and rare statement.
They usually don't speak up.
This is what he said
to The New York Times,
and we obtained it, too.
He said, I never detected any effort
on the part of the rights
to obtain
confidential information or to influence
anything that I did
in either
an official or private capacity.
And I would have strongly objected
if they had done so.
And I also talked to Wright yesterday,
and she said that
the story was patently not true.
But, Paul,
you know what's interesting
about this story,
it may not be so much about the leak
and whether it happened or not,
but that it really shows
this behind the scenes effort
to try to influence the court.
That feels really political
and that really bothers the justices,
because if the court begins
to look like a political body,
the fear is, is
that the public
is not going to take their decisions
seriously. That's what's of real concern.
And that might be the big import
of this story, Paula.
It's a great point Ari, on
because this comes
as public
approval ratings
for the court are at an all time low
and a lot of questions,
as you said,
about political influence, questions
about Justice Clarence Thomas,
his wife's involvement in January six.
I mean,
how do you think that this will impact
the public perception of the court?
Right.
What we're seeing right now that
the polls show that the public
is really questioning
the legitimacy of the Supreme Court,
and we're also seeing the justices
themselves worried about it.
Last summer,
we saw Elena Kagan
give about three appearances,
and she really talked
publicly about that decision last term
overturning Roe, a 50 year old precedent
just because there'd been a change
in the membership of the court.
And she said, you know,
when the court moves like that,
it calls into question
the legitimacy of the court.
But interestingly,
Chief Justice John Roberts,
in his own public appearances
and Samuel Alito,
they really pushed back.
They didn't name her,
but they said, you know,
you can't question
the legitimacy of the court
just because you don't like its opinions.
So this is really bringing up
these issues
that are concerning
not only the country, but
the court itself.