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A2 u.s. news
Monday 21 noveMber 2022

Lawmakers urge action after report of other high court leak

WASHINGTON (AP) — The in the case in which the was made public. In a 5-4
chairman of the Senate high court overturned Roe decision, Alito wrote that
Judiciary Committee said v. Wade, ending constitu- some companies with reli-
his panel is reviewing "seri- tional protections for abor- gious objections can avoid
ous allegations" in a report tion. That decision was writ- the contraceptives require-
that a former anti-abortion ten by Justice Samuel Alito, ment in President Barack
leader knew in advance who is also the author of Obama's health care leg-
the outcome of a 2014 Su- the majority opinion in the islation.
preme Court case involv- 2014 case at the center of Schenck, who previously
ing health care coverage the new report. headed the group Faith
of contraception. In the Times story, Rev. Rob and Action, has said in oth-
The report Saturday in The Schenck said he learned er recent stories in Politico
New York Times followed the outcome of the Burwell and Rolling Stone that he
the stunning leak earlier v. Hobby Lobby Stores case was part of a concerted
this year of a draft opinion weeks before the decision effort to forge social and
Light illuminates part of the Supreme Court building at dusk on
Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 16, 2022. J
Associated Press
ministry relationships with increasingly marred ethi-
conservative justices. cal record" and said they
In the Times story, Schenck "intend to get to the bot-
said the information about tom of these serious allega-
the Hobby Lobby decision tions." They too urged pas-
came from Gail Wright, a sage of a code of ethics.
donor to his organization The Times' story included
who was part of the out- an emphatic denial by Ali-
reach effort to the justices to that he'd disclosed the
and who had dined with outcome of the case. The
Alito and his wife. Wright court released Alito's full
herself denied obtaining or statement to The Associ-
sharing any information in ated Press:
an interview with the Times. "The allegation that the
The New York Times also Wrights were told the out-
published a letter Schenck come of the decision in
said he wrote Chief Justice the Hobby Lobby case, or
John Roberts in July alerting the authorship of the opin-
him to the alleged breach ion of the Court, by me or
years ago. Schenck wrote my wife is completely false.
that he thought the infor- My wife and I became ac-
mation might be relevant quainted with the Wrights
as part of a probe into the some years ago because
leak of the abortion de- of their strong support for
cision. Sen. Dick Durbin, the Supreme Court Histori-
D-Ill., the chairman of the cal Society, and since then,
Senate Judiciary Commit- we have had a casual and
tee, said in a statement purely social relationship.
Saturday that the commit- "I never detected any effort
tee is "reviewing these se- on the part of the Wrights
rious allegations," and he to obtain confidential infor-
called on fellow members mation or to influence any-
of Congress to pass a bill thing that I did in either an
that would require the high official or private capacity,
court to adopt a code of and I would have strongly
ethics. Two fellow Demo- objected if they had done
crats, Sen. Sheldon White- so. I have no knowledge
house of Rhode Island of any project that they al-
and Rep. Hank Johnson of legedly undertook for 'Faith
Georgia, who chair courts and Action,' 'Faith and Lib-
subcommittees, issued a erty,' or any similar group,
statement calling the Times and I would be shocked
report "another black mark and offended if those alle-
on the Supreme Court's gations are true," it said.q