It’s been nearly four months since the Supreme Court’s draft majority opinion overturning the federal right to abortion was leaked to Politico. Besides setting off a firestorm of abortion rights protests, the leaked draft also prompted outrage from conservatives who believed a liberal activist close to the court was responsible for the unprecedented breach.
Even after the opinion was officially released earlier this summer, there has still been a desire among the right to find the leaker and bring that person to justice—despite the fact that it could just as likely have been a conservative who leaked it.
This week, prominent right-wing pundits and social media personalities—and at least one U.S. senator—suddenly thought they cracked the case, even though it was evident from the outset that their theory was ludicrous.
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At the same time, the pile-on that ensued was a clear-eyed look into how the right-wing outrage machine works.
Mark Joseph Stern, a Slate senior writer covering the Supreme Court, first flagged a new case on the court’s so-called “shadow docket” earlier this week. The case features Yeshiva University asking justices to overturn a lower court decision requiring the school to approve the formation of an LGBTQ student group.
At one point, conservative writer Nicole Russell questioned Stern on social media about his ability to quickly report on the new filing, noting that the document he shared was timestamped nearly an hour before it was published on the SCOTUS website.
“How are you getting a hold of these so fast? I obviously need some tips,” Russell tweeted at Stern on Wednesday, prompting the Slate journalist to respond that he would directly message her.
It didn’t take long for conservative Twitter to pounce on this exchange and offer it up as proof that Stern was the SCOTUS leaker.
GOP communications strategist and Twitter troll Matt Whitlock got the ball rolling, sharing a screenshot of Stern’s and Russell’s tweets alongside a wide-eyed emoji. “I think we'd all like to know how liberal reporters like @mjs_DC are getting news out of the Supreme Court before it's public. Seems to be a big year for that kind of thing,” Whitlock wrote in a post that’s been retweeted more than 700 times.
Comfortably Smug, the shitposting, pseudonymous Twitter account of Hurricane Sandy hoaxer Shashank Tripathi, boosted Whitlock’s tweet with several more siren emojis and a simple caption: “Wowowowow.” Eventually, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) retweeted Whitlock’s post to his nearly one million followers.
Sean Davis, the CEO of The Federalist, a right-wing outlet, also baselessly suggested that Stern’s ability to post the Yeshiva court documents so quickly online was evidence of a grander conspiracy.
“Given that we're a 100+ days since the Dobbs leak, with zero resolution, I think we'd all like to know how a left-wing blogger at Slate is getting leaked SCOTUS documents before [they] appear on the SCOTUS website,” he tweeted.
Additionally, the official account of the anti-abortion website LifeNews.com repeatedly wrote on Twitter that “maybe we’ve identified the leaker.” (Though the account later claimed it was just being “tongue in cheek.”) Other Twitter users went so far as to demand that Stern be hauled before a congressional committee.
The truth of the matter, of course, is far more mundane—and reveals that those pushing the goofy theory that Stern was the leaker don’t understand (or just willfully ignored) how court reporting works.
The Slate writer took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to point out that all he did was help Russell add herself to the “call-out list” for the Supreme Court’s docket entries. He even publicly shared his DMs with Russell, which featured him telling her how to get added to the email list by contacting the court’s public information office.
Despite calling out Whitlock and others for falsely accusing him of being the leaker, the accusatory tweets were not deleted, eventually leading to Hawley’s retweet.
“I’m really at a loss,” Stern tweeted Wednesday night. “It’s not funny at this stage. A senator is telling every crazy person on the internet that I’m a SCOTUS leaker. What am I supposed to do? The accusation is objectively false!”
Other journalists and legal experts came to Stern’s defense amid the right-wing social media pile-on, noting that it is “more fun to make it sound like a liberal conspiracy” than acknowledge that the Supreme Court courteously emails reporters “when relevant things happen.” Some pointed out how “very funny” it is to think Stern “got hold of literally the most incredible SCOTUS scoop in history and just passed it off to another reporter.”
When reached for comment, Stern told The Daily Beast that the “strangest part of this episode is that the allegations against me make absolutely no sense,” adding that it’s “bizarre and incoherent to suggest that I would receive the leak then pass it off to Politico without credit.”He then took further aim at Whitlock and others for “peddling a flagrant lie” despite seeing his tweets explaining how he had received the filing and that he helped a conservative journalist learn how to add herself to that same email list.
“Yet Whitlock refuses to take down the tweet, let alone retract his claim and apologize. The other trolls, including a U.S. senator, have kept their retweets up, as well,” Stern told The Daily Beast. “This incident vividly illustrates the moral rot and gleeful dishonesty at the heart of the conservative ‘media criticism’ complex.”
Stern concluded, “This is an ugly and soul-killing way to spend one's time, fabricating and promoting lies in an effort to destroy your perceived enemy” before noting that “the emotion I am left with is pity for these sewer dwellers.”
Whitlock, Tripathi, and Davis did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hawley’s press secretary Abigail Marone, meanwhile, pointed The Daily Beast to a tweet she sent to Stern on Thursday afternoon.“What a lie. No one accused you of anything. @mattdizwhitlock asked how you managed to get docs before the general public,” she wrote. “Totally fair question but you responded with a little meltdown. Grow up.”
