LewRockwell
Last week, when the pilfered draft of a Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to the media, it saddened me deeply. My sadness was brought about by the realization that someone is trying to sabotage the highest court in the land. Justice Robert Jackson, who sat in the 1940s and 1950s, famously said that the Supreme Court is infallible only because it is final; it is not final because it is infallible.
Stated differently, under our system of government, the judiciary has the duty of interpreting the Constitution and federal laws, and it has the final say on what they mean; and the final step in the judiciary is the Supreme Court.
The court does not answer to the people; it is intentionally secret and even obscure. Thatâs because the whole purpose of an independent judiciary is to be anti-democratic. Its job is to preserve and protect life, liberty and property from the overreach of the popular branches â the president and Congress â and from the states.
The unfairness to the court in general, and to Justice Alito in particular (full disclosure, we are college classmates who disagree on much and remain good friends), is that what was leaked was a work in progress. Any change from the leaked draft to the final opinion will provoke endless speculation.
