Marcia Coyle:
In terms of the leak, I think that it's hard to say that I see anything visibly.
I mean, we know that, last summer, some of the justices made comments about the impact of the leak. Justice Thomas, for example, said it was the sort of thing that makes you always want to look over your shoulder. Justice Alito talked about how it led to threats on justices' lives.
I think, overall, that it definitely affected the interpersonal relationships within the court, not just among the justices and their clerks, but even the people who work there, especially after being investigated for this.
And that — I think it's unfortunate, John, that the court — that the investigation did not find someone to hold responsible for this, because it continues a shadow over the court. There were a number of people who believed first that we might never hear about the results, that the court would never do what it did today, which was issue a report, and they should get credit for doing that.
But, also, people felt that it might have been somebody — it might have been a justice or the spouse of a justice who did this. And without holding someone responsible, that suspicion is going to continue. And I think as well it will continue to affect the interpersonal relationships, perhaps not as much as they were affected last term, when things were still so raw.
The court gets its work done and the justices work together. But I think it can't help but continue to cast a shadow over the institution, at a time when there are many shadows over many institutions in our government. And that's unfortunate.
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