Dems take a keen interest in another alleged Supreme Court breach – By Steve Benen (MSNBC) / Nov 30, 2022
A religious right insider claims he knew the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case before it was announced. Democrats are deeply interested in the allegations.
The Rev. Rob Schenck was a prominent culture warrior in the religious right for many years, before growing disillusioned with the movement and distancing himself from his former far-right allies. His most provocative move, however, came earlier this month. The New York Times reported:
“As the Supreme Court investigates the extraordinary leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case involving contraception and religious rights. In a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and in interviews with The New York Times, the Rev. Rob Schenck said he was told the outcome of the 2014 case weeks before it was announced. He used that information to prepare a public relations push, records show, and he said that at the last minute he tipped off the president of Hobby Lobby, the craft store chain owned by Christian evangelicals that was the winning party in the case.”
According to the Times’ reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case — a ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito — “was shared with only a handful of advocates.”
The article added that there’s “a trail of contemporaneous emails and conversations that strongly suggested he knew the outcome and the author of the Hobby Lobby decision before it was made public.”
