US top court says it cannot find source of landmark abortion reversal leak

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US Supreme Court said Thursday that it has been unable to identify who leaked the draft majority opinion that ultimately ended decades of federal abortion protections.

The court said in an unsigned statement that the early release of the landmark opinion is "one of the worst breaches of trust in its history."

The then-draft opinion was published in full by the Politico news website, which also extensively reported on it a month before the opinion was officially released.

The incident marks the first time in the court's history that a draft opinion had been leaked to the press.

"The leak was no mere misguided attempt at protest. It was a grave assault on the judicial process," the court said. "It is no exaggeration to say that the integrity of judicial proceedings depends on the inviolability of internal deliberations."

Chief Justice John Robert directed the court's marshal and staff to carry out an investigation into the source of the leak.

But the court said that after extensive interviews with the 82 people who had access to the document during the months-long probe, "the team has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence."

"After months of diligent analysis of forensic evidence and interviews of almost 100 employees, the Marshal’s team determined that no further investigation was warranted," the court said.

The court hired an outside consultant to go over the marshal’s findings, and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a separate statement that his office determined the investigation was "thorough," adding he cannot "identify any additional useful investigative measures."