Top Court Leak Threatens Judicial Decision-Making, Gorsuch Says

US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch called it “terribly important” for the court to identify who is responsible for leaking a draft of its blockbuster abortion decision last spring.

“Improper efforts to influence judicial decision-making, from whatever side, from whomever, are a threat to the judicial decision-making process and inhibit our capacity to communicate with one another,” Gorsuch said Thursday at the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit’s bi-annual Bench & Bar Conference.

The opportunity for judges to hear from their colleagues informally about their initial ideas is an invaluable part of the process, he said.

Gorsuch’s appearance comes a day before Chief Justice John Roberts is scheduled to speak at the same event. Roberts called the leak “absolutely appalling” during a conference in Atlanta in May just days after Politico published a draft of the majority decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito that showed the court was planning to overturn the constitutional right to abortion created by Roe v. Wade.

Gorsuch told a ballroom of over 200 people that the internal committee that Roberts appointed to oversee an investigation into the leak has been busy.

“We’re looking forward to their report I hope soon,” he said.

Gorsuch sat on the Tenth Circuit for over 10 years before President Donald Trump appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2017.