(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Cruz blames SCOTUS leak on 'little woke left-wing twit' and says they should be disbarred and JAILED [1]

['Katelyn Caralle', 'U.S. Political Reporter', 'Elizabeth Elkind', 'Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com']

Date: 2022-05-05 16:22:33+01:00

Ted Cruz claims the Supreme Court leak is the doing of an individual 'woke left-wing twit' and claims the person responsible for the chaos unleashed in America on Monday evening should be disbarred and put in jail.

'In over 200 years of our nation's history, that has never happened,' the Republican Texas senator told Fox Primetime host Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday.

'And there was one woke little left-wing twit who decided, to hell with his or her obligations to the justice they work for, to hell with their obligations to the court, to hell with their obligations to the rule of law, that they would instead try to sneak it out in order to put political pressure on the justices and intimidate them into changing their votes,' he added.

Cruz, after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1995, clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and then for the Supreme Court's Chief Justice at the time William Rehnquist from 1996 to 1997.

He told Fox News on Wednesday that it's 'difficult to overstate how destructive this is to the Supreme Court.'

On Monday evening, Politico published what appeared to be a photocopy of a draft opinion from conservative Justice Samuel Alito from February showing a potential impending overturn of landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.

Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday called the act of leaking a bombshell Supreme Court memo an 'unforgivable sin.'

Texas Senator Ted Cruz told Fox News on Wednesday that the Supreme Court leaker is likely a clerk who is 'one woke little left-wing twit' who turned on their 'obligations to the justice they work for'

An un-scalable massive fence was erected around the perimeter of the Supreme Court Building on Wednesday evening after clashes escalated between pro- and anti-abortion protesters

The high court's marshal Col. Gail A. Curley is investigating the leak after Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leaked document and called for a probe to track down the individual who shared the draft opinion.

Republicans argue that the leak has destroyed the sanctity of the Supreme Court, which for most of its history has remained free of political influence and partisan bickering that is more common in the executive and legislative branches.

'We're going to find this person, and when they're found, they're going to be fired on the spot, they will be disbarred if they're a member of the bar, or they will never be admitted to the bar to be a lawyer, and to the extent that they've broken criminal laws, they need to be prosecuted and sent to jail,' Cruz said.

Democrats, however, are unconcerned with the leak and are more worried about what the contents of the draft opinion could mean for women's right to terminate their pregnancies.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case resulted in a decision that made abortion a federal protected constitutional right.

In recent years, red states have tried to chip away at that rule by limiting abortion rights to time periods in which a woman may not even be aware that she is pregnant.

Cruz thinks that the leak came from one of the four clerks for each justice.

'I think the chances are zero that it is a justice,' Cruz said. 'I cannot believe any justice would be [party] to such a grave betrayal of the institution.'

'I think it is a law clerk, and I think it is very likely a law clerk for one of the three liberal justices. That means there are 12 likely suspects,' he added.

The draft opinion showed five of the six conservative justices in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade – with only Roberts breaking from his colleagues to join the three liberals on the bench in the dissent.

The draft signed by Justice Alito said 'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.'

A draft opinion sparked a firestorm late on Monday night when it was first reported that the court could consider striking down federal abortion protections.

Barr speculated that the leaker could face criminal charges -- even outlining 'a number of federal statutes' he said would apply in a television interview on Fox News.

Host Martha McCallum noted that the person's identity could be revealed by the media seeking to build a 'cottage industry' around them that included book deals and other promotional identity.

'Well, I hope they build it while they're in jail,' Barr answered dryly. 'Because this is a grave -- an unforgivable sin, and I think it is likely they're going to find out who leaked it.'

The former Justice chief called for 'the full weight of the law to be brought against them.'

Donald Trump's attorney general outlined specific criminal charges he thought the person who leaked the Supreme Court draft could be subjected to

Barr speculated that one potential charge could be 'fraud against the United States,' which he explained 'involves wrongdoing intended to impede the functioning of the government.'

'They are also statutes on obstructing or trying to interfere or influence the due administration of justice by committing acts like this,' he continued. 'It could also involve using government documents for one's own benefit, converting government documents.'

'So there are a number of criminal statutes that were potentially violated here,' Barr added.

He went on to express confidence that President Joe Biden's Justice Department will pursue the person who leaked the draft.

'If they're called on to do it, I think they will. The other option at least initially would -- the court has virtually unlimited power to protect its own procedures and processes. They can use compulsory power to do their own investigation,' Barr said.

'But at the end of the day, I think -- because criminal punishment I think is called for here -- I think at some point it's going to have to go to the Justice Department.'

'We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,' the draft states of the landmark 1973 case.

Demonstrators hold signs during a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this year, in Washington, U.S., May 4

Protesters first descended on the national capital on Monday night when the opinion was first reported by Politico

'The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.'

In his statement confirming the draft, Roberts called the leak a 'betrayal of the confidences of the Court.'

But whereas Republicans have focused their outrage on the act of leaking the draft, Democrats are up-in-arms over the possibility that a nearly 50-year precedent relating to the right to privacy could soon be overturned by the court's 5-3 conservative majority.

Twenty-six states are expected to limit or outlaw abortion if Roe is overturned.

Biden said the potential decision 'calls into question the fundamental right to privacy — the right to make personal choices about marriage, whether to have children, and how to raise them.'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the opinion an 'abomination.'

Republican appointed-Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett could all vote to strike down Roe with Justice Samuel Alito

And a number of lawmakers are accusing Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett of lying to senators when they declared Roe v. Wade to be set precedent during their confirmation processes.

But according to Barr, their answers did not necessarily indicate that they would not overturn the case.

'I don't think those responses could fairly be understood as saying it would never be overruled,' he claimed on Wednesday.

'I think they all made clear that, like any other precedent, it is subject to stare decisis and weighed in some degree of deference. But the whole doctrine of stare decisis also has in it some factors that are consulted, that may lead a court to overrule a prior precedent.'

However, he pointed out, Alito's opinion is only a confirmation of his beliefs and not that of other justices.

The explosive draft is linked to the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, in which Mississippi officials are seeking to impose a 15-week abortion ban. State prosecutors have also asked the high court to consider overturning Roe v. Wade altogether.

The case's defendant is the last operational abortion clinic in Mississippi. A decision in the case is expected in June.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10786195/Cruz-blames-SCOTUS-leak-little-woke-left-wing-twit-says-disbarred-JAILED.html

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/