Why the Supreme Court Isn’t Great at Investigations
News sources have confirmed that we all learned something very powerful from the Supreme Court’s report of its internal investigation of the leak to Politico of the draft Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. We learned that The Supreme Court isn’t very good at internal investigations.
The investigation, which was conducted by the marshal of the Supreme Court, Col. Gail A. Curley, failed to identify the leaker, or even how the draft Dobbs opinion was leaked. But, the reasons the Court’s investigation deserves a low grade are as follows —
- They should NOT have investigated themselves — Given the inherent conflict when an organization investigates itself, any internal investigation must be credible in both fact and appearance. Would be better to use independent counsel.
- The Court did NOT follow its own best practices.
- The investigation did NOT follow all leads, most glaringly by apparently failing to interview spouses of Court clerks and personnel even though, according to the final report, “some individuals admitted to investigators that they told their spouse or partner about the draft Dobbs opinion and the vote count, in violation of the Court’s confidentiality rules.” What were the reasons for not interviewing spouses and partners, especially since the draft opinion apparently could be accessed from home? The report does not say.
The bottom line is that to conduct a credible internal investigation of the Dobbs leak, it would have to relinquish control over the investigation, and relinquishing control is not in the Court’s DNA. Instead, as we can see, it tried to have it both ways by using a Court employee to do the investigation and an outside lawyer to give it an arms-length blessing.
As this high profile case demonstrates there are correct and incorrect ways to conduct investigations. As we know, success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will ensure you know everything to make the right decisions and maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!