As the Supreme Court investigates the leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case. From The New York Times.
As the Supreme Court investigates the extraordinary leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case involving contraception and religious rights.
The minister’s account comes at a time of rising concerns about the court’s legitimacy. A majority of Americans are losing confidence in the institution, polls show, and its approval ratings are at a historic low. Critics charge that the court has become increasingly politicized, especially as a new conservative supermajority holds sway.
Alito, in a statement issued through the court’s spokesperson, denied disclosing the decision. He said that he and his wife shared a “casual and purely social relationship” with the Wrights and did not dispute that the two couples ate together June 3, 2014. But the justice said that the “allegation that the Wrights were told the outcome of the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, or the authorship of the opinion of the Court, by me or my wife, is completely false.
Schenck recruited wealthy donors like Wright and her husband, Donald, encouraging them to invite some of the justices to meals, to their vacation homes or to private clubs. He advised allies to contribute money to the Supreme Court Historical Society and then mingle with justices at its functions. He ingratiated himself with court officials who could help give him access, records show.
In the interview, Wright said she used such seats “all the time” because “Nino and my husband were very good friends.” She was eager to hear the Hobby Lobby arguments, she added, because she had an interest in “all cases related to biblical issues.”He had long been an ends-justify-the-means anti-abortion provocateur. During the 1992 Democratic convention, he plotted a stunt to accost future President Bill Clinton with an aborted fetus in a container.
He wanted to gain access himself — but because he was a controversial figure, he also recruited couples who were less likely to draw notice. His leading players were Wright and her husband, a real estate developer and philanthropist from Centerville, Ohio. They got involved in his work “to have a major impact on the attitudes and actions of those in a position to shape and interpret our laws,” they wrote in a 2001 newsletter.
That helped him draw close to the society’s executive director, David T. Pride. In November 2011, Pride took Green of Hobby Lobby to the chief justice’s annual Christmas party at Schenck’s request. In an email, Schenck described Green’s parents, already Faith and Action donors, as potential big givers to the society: “Family is worth about $3b.”Pride responded, saying he would escort Green into the party. He added: “We should consult about what you might like me to promote on your behalf to Mr.
“As I am sure you will appreciate, my position does not permit me to assist in the work of Fr. Pavone’s organization,” Scalia wrote in a letter, adding, “I will be happy to meet him, however, at a time he can arrange with my secretary.”Supreme Court justices mostly police themselves, which Schenck said he exploited. While they are subject to the same law on recusals as other federal judges, they are not bound by the ethics code that applies to the rest.
Kaitlynn Rivera, who worked for Faith and Action from 2013 to 2015, confirmed many details Schenck provided, including about the donor couples and his relationships at the court. To supporters, the minister boasted about his group’s connections, but he regularly warned them to keep quiet because he “knew the public at large would be upset by that kind of access,” she said in an interview.
“Lunch with CT on Monday, Sam on Wednesday, dinner at court on Monday, Dinner with Maureen on Wednesday,” she wrote in another email that year. Schenck understood “CT” and “Sam” to be Clarence Thomas and Alito. Scalia’s widow is named Maureen. “Being a friend or having a friendly relationship with a justice, you know that they don’t ever tell you about cases. They aren’t allowed to,” Wright said. “Nor would I ask. There has never been a time in all my years that a justice or a justice’s spouse told me anything about a decision.”The minister said that after he learned the outcome from Wright in a phone call, he froze.
He was still torn, he said, over whether to pass the news to Hobby Lobby’s owners. But Schenck hoped to further ingratiate himself with the Green family. “I wanted to give them something of value, and perhaps that would engender a reciprocal gift back,” he told the Times.
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