Date: May 14th, 2022 7:53 AM
Author: Mahogany pistol shrine
I am surprised no one is analyzing the actual document rather than the text of the opinion itself and circumstantial evidence as to whom the leaker was most likely to be. It appears to be a high resolution pdf scan of a printed doc that was stapled (the staple removed, would have had to be a good stapler to get to that many pages) and had a note about distribution on top (not sure how affixed if at all).
There is also a mark on page 6, but it’s probably a printing error (hidden watermark?).
But the most interesting part is the highlighting. First, it appears to be done in pdf (anyone know exactly what program has those arrows?). Who has a printed document unstapled, scanned, emailed (or otherwise sent) and highlights in PDF. Especially who highlights that it’s the first draft? And the key rulings are highlighted, and not perfectly (page 64-65 highlight misses a line but it’s meant to be one highlight).
So, regardless who was the leaker, who was the highlighter? Was it Alito? Seems like almost certainly not, why would he highlight the opinion he drafted and circulated. Who would highlight a scanned pdf? Maybe someone who was not in chambers? Soto was out in January for arguments, remember? I am sure former clerks know their justices’ practices as to how they review draft opinions, but we can guess. Figure the older ones are more paper. And who would highlight the key passages, a clerk would probably be forcused on bluebook and typos and would fix as they went along. That’s not there are there are errors.
Bottom line, this is some justice’s highlighting in my view. And that fact, can narrow down the leaker (maybe).
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5108997&forum_id=2Elisa#44510396)