The New York Times reported that a former leader of the anti-abortion movement told the Supreme Court justice that he was informed of the outcome of the case weeks before it was made public.
In a letter sent to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the Rev. Rob Schenck said that he was made aware of the decision before the official announcement. The draft opinion of the abortion case was leaked in May.
In the case of the Hobby Lobby contraception case, the justices ruled that forcing family-owned corporations to pay for contraceptive coverage violated their religious freedom. Records obtained by The Times show that Schenck used his knowledge of the decision to make a public relations offensive.
Schenck told Steve Green about what had been disclosed to him before the decision was made.
The outcome of the case was only known to a small group of people.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito was the author of the majority opinions in both cases.
The leak of the decision was met with a furious response from the public. Conservatives celebrated the court's signal to overturn the case but criticized the leak. The issue of abortion returned to individual states to regulate as pro-choice activists rallied against it.
Schenck wrote a letter to Roberts about the process in which the revelation about the case happened.
The home of Justice and Mrs. Alito was visited by a donor to the Capitol Hill-based non-profit organization I lead. He wrote that she suggested that she could learn the status of the case in their conversation.
She told me that she had obtained the information during that visit. He said that they talked on the phone and that she detailed the revelation. We talked about how the owners of Hobby Lobby would be interested in this information.
Schenck has created a situation where a religious official who had been cultivating relationships with anti-abortion leaders has now revealed a damning allegation, with a sitting justice brushing aside any knowledge of the charge and the high court still unsure about who leaked the Dobbs abortion draft this year.
According to The Times, they found statements that suggested that Schenck had knowledge of the decision weeks before the news broke.
Schenck told The Times that he sent the letter to Roberts in order to aid the investigation into the leak of the opinion.
The New York Times reviewed an email from the Schenck donor, who had dined with Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, and reached out to the minister to let him know that she had something to say.
"Rob, if you want to hear something new, please call." Wright did not reply to the Times report.
Schenck said that Wright told him that the high court's decision would be favorable to the company.
The court decided in June that requiring closely-held corporations to fund contraceptives in employee insurance plans was a violation of religious freedom.
Alito said in the statement that he had a casual and purely social relationship with the Wrights.
Wright told The Times that she didn't tell anyone about the decision before it was made.
The Times report has not been commented on by the company.
The Supreme Court didn't elaborate on anything related to Schenck's letter or the investigation into the leak of the Dobbs draft.
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