# Who leaked the draft abortion decision? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2022, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910 "2022-05-04T00:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/281 "2023-01-23T01:37:59Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Prepare to be shocked. None of that surprises me. Courts run on internal trust. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/282 "2023-01-23T02:22:35Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Prepare to be shocked. Not really. All of those are policy and procedure weaknesses. The technical infrastructure is about as secure as it can be. The most likely culprit is going to be someone with access that really didn’t need it or someone with legitimate need access that decided to pull a Snowden. Dollars to donuts that several teams have gone through the user list with their Least Privilege Access clubs and thinned the ranks considerably. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/283 "2023-01-23T02:24:00Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > None of that surprises me. It was not surprising yo me either. In fact it was exactly what I predicted in this thread back in May. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/284 "2023-01-23T02:30:07Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Not really. All of those are policy and procedure weaknesses. Your, “I would be shocked to learn there are any serious issues,” was directly in response to my comment about document control policy. > [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > I bet that if we ever learn what the Supreme Court document control policy looked like when this leak occurred, we’ll be shocked at how out of date and full of holes it was. This seems like the kind of institution that only updates things when something bad, like this, happens. So every couple decades. We have now learned that the document control policy was out of date and full of holes. > If it was a Court employee, or someone who had access to an employee’s home, that person was able to act with impunity because of inadequate security with respect to the movement of hard copy documents from the Court to home, the absence of mechanisms to track print jobs on Court printers and copiers, and other gaps in security or policies. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/285 "2023-01-23T03:07:20Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Not really. All of those are policy and procedure weaknesses. The technical infrastructure is about as secure as it can be. But implementing and enforcing rigorous IT security policies and procedures are as much a part of cybersecurity as the “technical infrastructure.” The human interface is often the weak point in IT security, and it’s disingenuous to claim a system is secure based only on the hardware and software. It doesn’t do any good to design the world’s most secure bank vault if the tellers keep the combination on a sticky note by the door. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/286 "2023-01-23T03:19:26Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Your, “I would be shocked to learn there are any serious issues,” was directly in response to my comment about document control policy. You are correct I misunderstood and was focusing entirely on the technical aspect of the issue. Apologies. > [@flurb](#): > > The human interface is often the weak point in IT security Probably 90% of the time… ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/287 "2023-01-23T16:16:03Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I think the traditions of the court were what protected such documents in the past. When this happened there was a LOT of pearl clutching among lawyers and judges. These things just do not happen! > > I expect they will be more careful in the future. I remain surprised that it seems like a lot of the legal world seems to be buying the pearl-clutching from the SCOTUS. They’ve been giving an enormous amount of access to the media and advocacy groups on internal court negotiations througout most of the Roberts Court. And it doesn’t take a legal genius to figure out that the reasoning on rulings like Dobbs is extremely motivated and has been carefully engineered to allow the conservatives to craft the precedent they want. It’s been obvious for a while that on very high profile cases the justices act like legislators angling each other including using the media to sway opinions. All they had before the leak was the faintest sliver of plausible deniability, and apparently to a lot of the media that follows legal issues they’ve somehow managed to maintain it even after this ruling and the leak. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/288 "2023-03-24T02:33:02Z")
Some more detail just landed regarding this. It does not answer the question in the OP but more fuel for the fire: > **[Supreme Court justices privately said the abortion leak locked in their votes...](https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-justices-said-abortion-leak-locked-their-votes-report-2023-3?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar)** > > The leaked draft opinion stopped debate on the case between the justices, CNN's Joan Biskupic reported. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/289 "2023-03-24T02:52:19Z")
That was pretty obvious from the start. > [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Public outrage is far more likely to lock everyone in to their positions because they don’t want to look like they are influenced by such things. There’s zero chance of any justice changing their position now. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/290 "2023-03-24T02:54:38Z")
Certainly it was speculated but now it seems verified and lends more credence that it was leaked by the conservative side of the court. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/291 "2023-03-24T02:56:21Z")
That strongly suggests someone on the conservative side of things, who was worried about it getting watered down. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910/292 "2023-03-24T04:18:11Z")
Seems like the Deep State = the right. _a body of people, typically influential members of government agencies or the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-leaked-the-draft-abortion-decision/963910.md?page=14)