Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization: Who sprung the leak?

Two days ago, in "Roe v. Wade to be overturned? What happens then?", Walt told you about the virtually unprecedent leak of a draft opinion in Case No. 19-1392 in the Supreme Court of the United States, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. If confirmed, the opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, would overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision which made abortion on demand legal in the USA.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that the court's marshal has been directed to launch an investigation into the source of the leak. Walt suggested that Justice KBJ, the latest appointee to SCOTUS, be interviewed. It now appears that the leak was known as early as February, so the focus is now on an earlier diversity hire.

Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by the Prez [Surprised? Ed.] and has been sitting on the SCOTUS bench since August of 2009. 

She is the third woman, first Latina and first Woman of Colour to hold the position. She is known to get her hair on fire about such liberal issues as abortion, the Dempanic, etc.

For example, Justice Sotomayor claimed in Jauary over 100,000 children are in "serious condition" with the Wuhan flu. Even WaPo was constrained to point out that while omicron does seem to affect children more than other variants of the coronavirus, the judge's figure was wrong by a factor of about 20. 

Imagine Justice Sotomayor's chagrin on learning that SCOTUS was set to take away women's "reproductive health rights" (read: rights to kill their unborn babies). According to the leaked draft, she and two other judges -- Stephen Breyer and (((Elena Kagan))) -- oppose the ruling.

Could Justice Sotomayor be the source of the leak? The ultimate source, perhaps, but not even an AAA (Affirmative Action Appointee) would risk impeachment from a cushy job which is hers for life. She would be careful to preserve deniability, and set someone else up to take the fall.

Step forward Amit Jain, Justice Sotomayor's clerk. According to a story in International Business Times, Mr Jain has been identified "on social media" as the prime leaker. He was born, raised and educated in India.  

Amit Jain was born and raised in India, and according to IBT was educated there. But according to another source, his LinkedIn account says he holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brown and a J.D. from Yale. 

While at Yale law school, Mr Jain made headlines by blasting the university for its support of the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. He was quoted in a 2017 Politico piece by (((Josh Gerstein))), the reporter who, along with Alexander Ward, wrote the article in which the leaked draft was published.

Whereas Justice Sotomayor could be impeached, if it could be proven that she instigated or conspired in the leak, Mr Jain (if it was his doing) can merely be fired, and perhaps fined or jailed for violating his oath of confidentiality. While still at law school, he was a member of the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, the Juvenile Justice Clinic, and the Housing Clinic, so on form he should have no trouble finding another job, perhaps as a political/legal advisor to the Democratic Party.