While calls for investigation of the individual behind the leak of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion continue to echo across the country, the act itself might not be illegal, according to some experts. 

“As far as I can tell, there is no federal criminal law that directly prohibits disclosure of a draft legal opinion,” Orin Kerr, a legal scholar at Berkeley’s University of California, wrote on Twitter.  

“First, without more, I don’t think there is such a crime. There are criminal laws against leaking classified information, of course. But draft opinions are not classified,” he added. 

Although the disclosure of a draft opinion does not equate to a criminal offense, the procedure followed to leak the document can comprise certain crimes. 

“Although the leaking itself isn’t a crime, there may be a crime somewhere in the bigger picture,” Kerr said.

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 “For example, perhaps someone or some institution hacked into the computer of someone who had a draft of the opinion. Or maybe someone stole a paper copy of the opinion from someone who had a copy. Both of those are federal crimes,” he explained. 

Elucidating repercussions that do not fall under criminal penalties, Kerr said- “There are also non-criminal remedies.”

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“Most obviously, if it’s an employee, the employee would be fired. And if the person is a lawyer, the person presumably would be disbarred (or never be allowed to become a bar member),” he added. 

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While the illegality of the leak is still being debated, the head of the Supreme Court Police has been told to launch an investigation, according to Chief Justice John Roberts, who believes that the leak is a “betrayal of the confidences of the Court” and aims to “undermine the integrity of our operations.”

“I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.