On Thursday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz acknowledged he had “no evidence” regarding the leaker of a draft Supreme Court ruling that appeared to presage the imminent overruling of Roe v. Wade.
Still, he said it “most likely” originated from a staffer for Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Leaker Has to Be a Clerk
“I believe it is extremely probable to be a law clerk.”
“It is very, very likely a legal clerk for one of the three liberal judges,” Cruz added before stating he suspected the clerk worked for Sotomayor, an Obama nominee, “since she is the most partisan member.”
“Therefore, she is most inclined to employ partisans with crazy eyes as clerks,” he remarked Thursday on his show, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Later, the senator explained the program, “I have no proof of this. I am simply drawing an inference.”
Ted Cruz recklessly speculates, with zero proof, that he believes it was a clerk with Justice Sotomayor that leaked the SCOTUS brief. pic.twitter.com/h1xCWlAXgC
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) May 5, 2022
Since the disclosure of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on Monday, the Supreme Court has confirmed the manuscript is “genuine.”
According to a statement issued by the court’s public info office and Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday, the document does not reflect the final opinion the justices have not yet announced.
Who’s the most partisan of the Justices? And who else is in the suspect pool, besides law clerks?https://t.co/BqBE85XGhw pic.twitter.com/KxfIhyzelp
— Paul Morrison (@chessclubgringo) May 5, 2022
Cruz limited his speculations to “three liberal justices.”
He mentioned the potential that any of the remaining six Republican-appointed justices or their aides were the creators of the leaked copy.
“That means you have a suspect pool of 12 individuals,” he said, adding, “That’s not a very believable suspect pool.”
Cruz was a clerk for then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the mid-1990s. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, he is a current member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Abortion Limitations
Public tensions across the nation are at an all-time high over the possibility the nearly 50-year-old precedent legalizing abortions nationwide could soon be returned to the states’ authority.
Roberts ordered the court marshal to investigate the source of the leak on Tuesday.
Despite calls from several Republican politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for Justice Department involvement, little information has been released regarding the investigation’s probable suspects or scope.
Massive security fencing was constructed around the Supreme Court on Wednesday night in rebuttal to protests over the draft opinion.
The draft indicated that most justices were likely to uphold a 15-week ban on abortion in Mississippi, while granting states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, the legal right to set abortion bans as early as six weeks after conception.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer planned a vote on Roe’s codification as a law for Wednesday of the following week, despite the likelihood that Democrats lack the two-thirds majority needed to enact such legislation.
A final determination regarding Dobbs is anticipated between now and the end of June.
