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Algernon Moncrieff
Algernon Moncrieff's Journal
Algernon Moncrieff's Journal
November 22, 2022
Heather Cox Richardson released this on Facebook. She also has a paid subscriber page.
Heather Cox Richardson - November 21, 2022 (Monday) "Operation Higher Court"
Two big stories landed over the weekend.
The first harks back to the furor last May when the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Healththe decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized abortion rights as a constitutional rightwas leaked to Politico before it was released. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts called the leak a singular and egregious breach of trust and ordered an investigation to find the leaker. In late October, Justice Samuel Alito told the Heritage Foundation that the leak was a grave betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock that had made the courts right-wing majority targets for assassination.
On Saturday, Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker of the New York Times reported that the Reverend Rob Schenck, formerly an antiabortion activist, wrote to Roberts in July (although the letter was dated June 7, 2022) to say that in 2014 he had received advance notice of the courts decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobbythe decision allowing corporations to deny their employees contraceptive health care coveragefrom a woman who had just had dinner with Justice and Mrs. Alito. The dinner guest told Schenck that she had learned that Alito was writing the decision and that it would favor evangelical Christians. Schenck, who has become an advocate of choice as he is trying to mark himself as a progressive evangelical leader, signed the letter to Roberts, Yours in the interest of truth and fairness.
Schenck provided the reporters with contemporary emails suggesting he knew the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case ahead of time, and they talked to four people who confirmed that he had confidential information about it before the court handed it down. He used that information to prepare a public relations push ready to go the minute the decision was public.
The leak of a Supreme Court decision is shocking and potentially illegal, but even more shocking than the revelation that there have been two major leaks from the courtboth of right-wing opinions authored by Alitowas the story the reporters unraveled of the degree to which evangelical activists worked to become close to the justices, especially through participation in the courts historical society, as well as religious events, a plan Schenck called Operation Higher Court. Their goal was to influence the justices quietly, and it appears to have been at least somewhat successful: in July, Peggy Nienaber, the executive director of Liberty Counsels D.C. ministry, who worked with Schenck, was caught on a hot mic saying she prayed with certain Supreme Court justices.
The first harks back to the furor last May when the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Healththe decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized abortion rights as a constitutional rightwas leaked to Politico before it was released. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts called the leak a singular and egregious breach of trust and ordered an investigation to find the leaker. In late October, Justice Samuel Alito told the Heritage Foundation that the leak was a grave betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock that had made the courts right-wing majority targets for assassination.
On Saturday, Jodi Kantor and Jo Becker of the New York Times reported that the Reverend Rob Schenck, formerly an antiabortion activist, wrote to Roberts in July (although the letter was dated June 7, 2022) to say that in 2014 he had received advance notice of the courts decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobbythe decision allowing corporations to deny their employees contraceptive health care coveragefrom a woman who had just had dinner with Justice and Mrs. Alito. The dinner guest told Schenck that she had learned that Alito was writing the decision and that it would favor evangelical Christians. Schenck, who has become an advocate of choice as he is trying to mark himself as a progressive evangelical leader, signed the letter to Roberts, Yours in the interest of truth and fairness.
Schenck provided the reporters with contemporary emails suggesting he knew the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case ahead of time, and they talked to four people who confirmed that he had confidential information about it before the court handed it down. He used that information to prepare a public relations push ready to go the minute the decision was public.
The leak of a Supreme Court decision is shocking and potentially illegal, but even more shocking than the revelation that there have been two major leaks from the courtboth of right-wing opinions authored by Alitowas the story the reporters unraveled of the degree to which evangelical activists worked to become close to the justices, especially through participation in the courts historical society, as well as religious events, a plan Schenck called Operation Higher Court. Their goal was to influence the justices quietly, and it appears to have been at least somewhat successful: in July, Peggy Nienaber, the executive director of Liberty Counsels D.C. ministry, who worked with Schenck, was caught on a hot mic saying she prayed with certain Supreme Court justices.
Heather Cox Richardson released this on Facebook. She also has a paid subscriber page.
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Member since: Sun Apr 20, 2014, 12:49 AMNumber of posts: 5,790