Courts

Yeah, There Are *Still* A Bunch Of Unanswered Questions About The Supreme Court's Dobbs Leak Investigation

Michael Chertoff has been working for the Supreme Court for five years.

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Activists Continue To Gather Outside Supreme Court After Historic Overturning Of Roe v. Wade

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Back in January, the Supreme Court revealed that, like John Snow, they knew nothing about the leak of its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health over a month before it was finalized by Court. It was a curious — though perhaps not entirely unexpected — result given the consternation many expressed about the leak. But there was one detail in the leak report that caught the attention of a lot of folks.

That was that the Supreme Court also commissioned Michael Chertoff, Sam Alito’s former colleague when they both sat on the Third Circuit, to evaluate the investigation. And the leak report touts that the evaluation came back squeaky clean. But, because there are no transparency requirements about the Court’s spending, before that leak report, no one knew Chertoff was doing work for the Court. So Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) sent a letter asking Chertoff to provide additional clarification for the work his company has done for the Supreme Court.

As reported by Politico, the Chertoff Group has been advising the Court in secret on several different security consulting projects since 2018, though the dollar amount for that work remains undisclosed. Chertoff also provided more detail about his work on the Dobbs leak investigation:

“Our firm was not asked and did not participate in the investigative process, including conducting interviews with subjects of the investigation,” Chertoff wrote in his March 15, 2023 letter.

“However, we had discussions with court employees who were involved in the planning and execution of the Dobbs leak investigation. Our role was to review the thoroughness of the concluded investigation. If we had found material gaps in the investigation, we would have raised these with the Court, and subject to the Court’s approval, suggested and undertaken appropriate additional steps,” added Chertoff, a former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey who served on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals from 2003 to 2005.

Gabe Roth of Fix the Court noted some of the potential issues with Chertoff signing off on the Dobbs leak investigation: “With what we now know about Chertoff’s seven-figure, years-long contract with the Court, his firm’s oblique one-page seal of approval of the leak investigation reads to me like ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you.’”

Whitehouse and Johnson also have some more questions:

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“We may have further inquiries about the role of this private entity in validating the Supreme Court’s investigation, which reflects the Court’s lack of investigative capability to look into ethics inquiries and other internal matters,” they said in a statement. “We will continue working together to pursue oversight and legislation to bring much-needed transparency and accountability to the Court.”

“Transparency”? “Accountability”? At the Supreme Court? Haha, yeah, I’m not going to hold my breath.

Earlier: Everything You Need To Know About The Supreme Court Leak Report But The Justices Were Afraid To Ask
All That And The Supreme Court Still Has No Idea Who Leaked The Dobbs Decision
All That And The Supreme Court Still Has No Idea Who Leaked The Dobbs Decision
After VERY THOROUGH 10-Second Investigation, Supreme Court Declares Justice Alito Didn’t Commit Ethical Breach
Supreme Court Goes After Clerk Phone Records As Bumbling Abortion Leak Dragnet Continues To Come Up Empty

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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