Allow me some artistic license with the title. The SCOTUS ship is leaky, not sinking but stealing one of the best propaganda lines in history appealed to me. So, loose lips it is.

Leaks from the cloistered confines of the Supreme Court used to be rare. I remember the shockwaves when The Brethren came out in 1979. It was obvious that at least one of the Justices was a source. In that case, it was Potter Stewart who would retire in 1981 to be replaced by Sandra Day O’Connor. In fact, his role as Bob Woodward’s main source was not revealed until Stewart’s death in 1985.

Until they were all dead, few knew that four of FDR’s most distinguished appointees feuded like hillbillies. The McCoys were Jackson and Frankfurter; the Hatfields were Black and Douglas. I admired all of them even after learning about the fear and loathing at the Court. Great lawyers have big egos, especially when they become Supremes. That goes for bad lawyers like Sam the Sham Alito as well.

There were a few leaks involving the Court’s infamous Bush v. Gore opinion but nothing like the loose lips that are sinking the SS Chief Justice Roberts. First there was the Dobbs leak followed by stories of corrupt doings by Thomas and Alito. Roberts promised an investigation into the Dobbs leak, but it sank without a trace.

The leaks keep flowing with a brilliant story in the NYT by SCOTUS beat reporter Adam Liptak and investigative reporter Jodi Kantor. The latter won a Pulitzer prize for her role in taking out Harvey Weinstein. Kantor has turned her attention to the Supremes including stories about Sam the Sham’s MAGA flags.

The latest story is called How Chief Justice Roberts Shaped Trump’s Supreme Court Winning Streak. It’s no surprise to me; right after the immunity case turd was dumped I compared Roberts to Roy Cohn. So much for the Chief as institutionalist. I bought that bullshit until this year as did Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern. I hereby join their opinion. Consider this my concurrence.

I am, however, surprised by some of the material leaked to Kantor and Liptak:

This account draws on details from the justices’ private memos, documentation of the proceedings and interviews with court insiders, both conservative and liberal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because deliberations are supposed to be kept secret. The chief justice wrote the majority opinions in all three cases, including an unsigned one in March concluding that the former president could not be barred from election ballots in Colorado. Another case involved a highly unusual switch. In April, the chief justice assigned Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. to write a majority opinion saying that prosecutors had gone too far in bringing obstruction charges against some Capitol rioters. But in late May, the chief justice took it over.”

The source of the leak is unknown but my hunch is that it came from Justice Sotomayor’s chambers. She was repeatedly dissed by Roberts as she tried to put a brake on his extreme and incoherent immunity opinion. Roberts did not even pay Sotomayor the courtesy of a meeting to discuss a compromise proposal floated by her. Is the “wise Latina” the Potter Stewart of the current Court? Who could blame her?

As to the substance of the article, it’s all about taking control of SCOTUS. Roberts seemed to have lost control as the hard right contingent pumped out extreme opinion after extreme opinion. He stopped fighting them and joined the right-wing dog pile with 2024’s Trump trifecta.

As I’ve said before, the immunity opinion is poorly reasoned and written. Roberts and his right-wing colleagues claimed they were writing an opinion for the ages, instead it confuses lawyers and judges of all ages. It’s a turd that has landed in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s lap as she tries to untangle the mess created by the Republican justices. The immunity opinion exists to serve the Insult Comedian and the MAGA-fied GOP. So much for judicial independence and integrity.

The featured image is of Trump and Roberts at the court’s marble temple near the Capitol. An elevator panel is visible in the foreground of the picture. I wonder if there’s a stop in hell because that’s where Roberts is leading this court. The Justices could hear the Dipshit Insurrectionists as they rioted and attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Instead of reacting with horror, they’re enabling the Rioter-in-Chief. They’re too far gone to care what the world thinks. The Supremes have the hammer and they’re using it to allow Trump to get away with his crimes.

The old phrase justice delayed is justice denied was never truer than it is today. There’s a special place in hell for the six justices who voted to give Trump immunity. When the elevator stops in hades, they’ll join the justices who were in the Dred Scott and Plessy majorities. Talk about bad company. May they burn in hell, especially phonies like John Roberts who pretend to be umpires calling balls and strikes. Instead, Roberts is a political hack who is a player in the partisan game he claims to deplore.

The last word goes to Percy Mayfield: