(PartiallyPolitics.com) On Thursday the Supreme Court concluded its 8-month-long search into who revealed the leaked draft opinion on the Dobbs decision. The 23-page report noted that tech “limitations” in the system’s use made it “impossible” to rule out having court employees either email or printing out the draft opinion in order to give it to someone else.
Cybersecurity expert Mark Lanterman told Reuters that even a highly secure network cannot guarantee that no information will be leaked. As he noted, the problem is that no matter what the system is, it only requires one person to be motivated enough to leak a document or file.
However, Carrie Severino, a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, placed the blame on Chief Justice John Roberts for ordering the probe and for creating an environment where the security was subpar. He added that while no system is perfect, there are clear loopholes in the system that was in place.
According to the report, it is also impossible to determine who leaked the opinion draft. As they explained there were around 80 court personnel who had gained access to email copies of the draft opinion, and two who had been able to gain access to hard copies.
There were also 34 people who had printed copies of the opinion and four who were not certain whether they had or not. It was also noted that some had printed more than one copy. However, many also admitted that the draft opinion had not always been handled according to the “Court’s confidentiality policies.”
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