Supreme Court Pauses Auto Notifications After Software Glitch

The US Supreme Court is pausing automated email notifications for court actions after it accidentally sent alerts in pending cases three days early last week.

The court “is performing maintenance on the email notification functionality of its electronic filing system,” the Supreme Court’s public information office said in a statement Wednesday.

During this maintenance, the court said the system won’t send automated email notifications for court orders and opinions, as well as other court actions like case distribution or rescheduling.

When the court released orders to reporters 2 ½ hours after the alerts went out June 6, the court’s press office said only that the release was caused by “an apparent software malfunction.”

This is the second time in a year the court has accidentally released information ahead of schedule. Last term, a member of the court’s publications unit briefly posted online the court’s decision allowing emergency abortions in Idaho before it was officially ready to be released.

Opinions and court actions on whether the justices will hear a case are considered sensitive information because they have the power to move financial markets.

There are people that have insider type interests, like entities invested in the litigation, that want to know the likelihood that something is going to happen, said Adam Feldman, author of the “Legalytics” newsletter on Substack.

Any kind of first mover advantage can potentially allow them to move around assets before information becomes public, he said.

That didn’t happen here, which may be why many lawyers and legal scholars viewed the release as inconsequential.

“It is a reminder that the court isn’t infallible and they probably don’t have the perfect grasp over technology and general protocols, which in a lot of ways just shouldn’t be surprising,” said University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman, who clerked for retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“They are an institution full of people and they’re going to make some mistakes,” she said.

Unintentional vs. Intentional

After a draft of the court’s decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion was leaked to Politico in 2022, Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley made several recommendations on how the court could improve its handling of sensitive information.

Although those recommendations appeared to focus on the internal handling of sensitive documents not how they’re prepared for public release, Curley said at the time that “the existing platform for case-related documents appears to be out of date and in need of an overhaul.”

The court public information office didn’t respond to a June 9 request for answers to questions about whether it’s taken steps toward implementing Curley’s recommendation.

The software malfunction last week, “indicates there are obviously still gaps in their data management protocols,” Feldman said.

Legal scholars say it would be unfair to conflate the accidental release of orders this term and that opinion last term with what appeared to be an intentional leak in 2022 of the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“Software glitches happen, said Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute and former federal judge. “It’s a different order of magnitude than what happened with Dobbs.”

Though the court is stopping notifications for its actions, the court’s public information office said automated updates will continue to be sent for case filings that are submitted by parties in a case and amici.