SECRET $1M CONTRACT WITH COURT GAVE CHERTOFF A MILLION REASONS NOT TO ASK THE JUSTICES HARD QUESTIONS IN LEAK PROBE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (January 27, 2022) — New reports today reveal that the Supreme Court failed to disclose financial ties to former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who served as an external validator for last week’s report on the Court’s internal Dobbs leak probe. The news follows an admission from the marshal last Friday that the Supreme Court’s justices were not obligated to sign affidavits like the rest of the Court’s staff during the course of the investigation, opening questions of special treatment.

“It feels like every day brings a new story about the Roberts Court's nonexistent relationship with transparency and ethics,”said Take Back the Court Action Fund President Sarah Lipton-Lubet.“Chertoff claims that he couldn’t find ‘any additional useful investigative measures’ to identify the Dobbs leaker. We identified more than a dozen questions worth asking — but then again, we don’t have secret contracts with the Court. I guess Chertoff had at least a million reasons not to ask any of those questions. This kind of rot is at the core of this Court, and yet they wonder why the public no longer trusts them.”

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