Senate Republicans will reintroduce a bill Thursday to impose criminal penalties on individuals who leak confidential information pertaining to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi are the primary sponsors of the Stop Supreme Court Leakers Act. The legislation would require individuals convicted of leaking information from the Supreme Court to pay a $10,000 fine and serve a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to the text of the bill, as obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The bill also calls for seizing any profits that leakers may earn from disclosing sensitive information.
The Supreme Court has been rocked by several instances of high-profile leaks disclosing the justices’ internal deliberations to the public.
“Supreme Court leaks should be a criminal offense. Leakers threaten the safety of justices, damage the Court’s reputation, and put lives at risk,” Cassidy told the DCNF. “They must be held accountable, not celebrated.”
Private memos and other court documents that appeared to target Chief Justice John Roberts and related to three major cases involving President Donald Trump were leaked to the New York Times in a report published in September 2024.
Longtime court observers previously told the DCNF that a high-level member of the court’s liberal minority was likely responsible for the leak.
Cassidy and then-Sen. Marco Rubio previously introduced the bill in June 2022 following the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Rubio now serves as U.S. Secretary of State. Judicial experts believe the unprecedented leak was orchestrated to influence the justices’ decision-making and undermine the court’s integrity.
The court failed to identify who leaked the draft decision of the Dobbs ruling to Politico despite Roberts ordering the Supreme Court Marshal to investigate the leak.
“The Stop Supreme Court Leakers Act is a vital piece of legislation, which would ensure that the Court’s work remains free from unwanted outside interference by cracking down on those who leak confidential information,” Blackburn told the DCNF.
The unprecedented leaks over the past several years “only undermine public trust and the Supreme Court as an institution,” Hyde-Smith said.
Cassidy’s previous version of the bill failed to advance in the then-Democratic-controlled Senate.
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