Latest SCOTUS leak a gift to liberals ‘salivating’ over control of high court narrative: experts

By Fox News · Fox News

A Supreme Court leak is giving liberals new ammunition in their long-running criticism of the emergency docket after recently published internal memos showed how the high court fast-tracks major cases, a process that critics say has served to advance key parts of President Donald Trump’s agenda in his second term. "The liberals are salivating over this. They're very happy because it reinforces their narrative," South Texas College of Law professor Josh Blackman told Fox News Digital. The memos, published Saturday by the New York Times, offered a rare look at how Chief Justice John Roberts pressed the court in 2016 to quickly block President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. But the immediate concern now is not about what the documents revealed about the Supreme Court’s emergency docket but rather the leak itself, according to experts, who said it was a deliberate attempt to damage the court's credibility. "The bigger issue is people are leaking stuff to try to hurt the court," Blackman said. "That's the bigger story. This was done to try to make the court look bad. Roberts, I think, doesn't come out looking very good in this one. ... I think it's designed to hurt the chief in particular." THE FIVE LIBERAL COURTS THAT TIED TRUMP’S HANDS BEFORE SCOTUS CLIPPED THEIR POWER The leaked internal memos appeared centered on the 5-4 decision along ideological lines in February 2016 to block Obama's signature energy plan. The memos, written by and circulated among the justices, showed Roberts urging his colleagues to quickly intervene and halt the plan, a revelation that fueled attacks from the left on the so-called shadow docket. "The new reporting highlights the role of this rashly issued stay in inaugurating the Supreme Court’s use of unexplained and hastily issued 'shadow docket' proceedings to alter major national policies," Environmental Defense Fund general counsel Vickie Patton said in a statement Monday. The leak incident has generated several theories in legal circle…