🚨SCOTUS Justice ACCIDENTALLY LEAKS he is QUITTING?!!

So, it appears that a Supreme Court. Justice has leaked that he will be. quitting the bench pretty soon, but he. wanted to do it on his own terms, in my. opinion, and I believe there was. something in journalism called an. embargo taking place that may have. been accidentally breached by a. well-known Supreme Court reporter. Now, the Supreme Court reporter is saying, "No, I made a big mistake, and uh. actually, I just overheard this.

particular Supreme Court Justice saying. they were going to be quitting, and so I. put out a story on NPR, and uh it's my. bad. I'm falling on the sword." But, it's a pretty well-known journalist and. reporter who would normally get a. statement from the Supreme Court. It's a. pretty well-written story that had. quotes from other people. It seemed that. Maga Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the. House, was also kind of getting ready. for an announcement of this Supreme. Court Justice let me go through the. receipts with you. Form your own.

opinions, if you will. But, a lot of. people have been speculating that. Justice Alito, far-right wing Maga. Justice, and Justice Clarence Thomas, a. far-right wing Maga Justice who's been. on the bench forever, um that they would. likely be uh resigning, quitting, um and. allowing Donald Trump to pick two. younger, probably more radical and. dangerous versions of them. You've heard. me talk about that as a distinct. possibility following the end of this.

Supreme Court term. The term has now. ended with some. pretty horrific rulings. Uh the. birthright citizenship ruling was. perhaps the only decent ruling, although. it's pretty horrifying that there were. four Supreme Court Justices who were. very willing to overturn. uh birthright citizenship in the. Constitution. Yes, it was a 6-3. decision, but if you read Kavanaugh's. concurrence and dissent, he basically. said, "Uh if Congress does a uh piece of. legislation and it becomes a new law,

I'm fine overturning the constitutional. birthright citizenship in the 14th. Amendment." We'll get into more of that. Um, but otherwise, I thought it was some. horrific, horrific rulings. You go up. and the Lisa Cook ruling, keeping her as. a Board of Governor, wasn't that a. decent ruling? It kind of hedged the. ruling as well, and then uh Humphrey's. Executor was overturned, which allows. basically an imperial presidency to fire. everybody on the Supreme Court. I mean, as far as the Supreme Court allowed. firing for everybody in all of these. agencies. Like everybody to be fired on. the Supreme Court, wishful thinking. Of. firing everybody in agencies, which has.

never happened, you know, in 90-plus. years. I I digress. But, let me talk. about this. So, Justice Alito, it was. announced by NPR, by a uh journalist. named Nina Totenberg, who's basically. known as like the dean of Supreme Court. reporting. Like she would be the person. who would be the person to write this. story. Um, very inside baseball. She. writes the story. Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, retires. By the way, that's the.

way Alito wants to be remembered also. So, if he was planning that story, I'm. sure he would work with the reporter to. make that basically the headline in his. exit. This stuff is always well. coordinated, and Nina would be the. person to write that story. Um, so, Nina. writes the story. Lots of people start. to, you know, say, "Oh my god, Alito's. quitting. Alito's quitting." You know, and then the NPR kind of takes it down.

And then, according to the Wayback. Machine, the NPR article announcing. Justice Alito's retirement was actually. scheduled to be published on Friday. That makes a lot of sense, too. That's. when a story like that would drop, going. into the 4th. A lot of chatter going. into the holiday weekend about what's. taking place. The story gets removed and retracted. right away. And then NPR says it's. reporter who wrote the since retracted.

story on Justice Alito quitting retiring. will appear on the radio to address the. matter. So then she goes on the radio. and she basically Nina Totenberg goes on. does the radio and she said. she reads from this letter that she said. I just sent Justice Alito this letter. I. called this incident the worst. professionals mistake of my more than 50. years of journalism. I could go on, but. I do not know what else to say other. than to say I'm so sorry. She calls it a.

rookie mistake and said this is on me. This is on me. And then NPR's Kelly. McBride said this reporter Nina. Totenberg was listening to Chief Justice. John Roberts announcing retirements and. misheard one of his comments and then. she said ah. He's He announced Alito. So the story on. Alito's retirement was pre-written. She. rushed to publish it because she heard. John Roberts announce other retirements,

but no one checked with Alito's office. first. And then the NPR editor-in-chief. Tommy Evans wrote due to a. misunderstanding NPR's Supreme Court and. Legal Affairs correspondent Nina. Totenberg incorrectly reported that. Justice Alito had retired. Neither Alito. nor the Supreme Court Public Information. Office has announced his retirement. As. soon as the error was realized the story. was retracted and removed from NPR's. website. and an on-air correction was broadcast.

We regret the error and any confusion. this may have caused. This afternoon. Mrs. Totenberg will appear on All Things. Considered to explain what happened. She. has reached out to Justice Alito to. apologize. Between the Wayback Machine saying it. was going to be published on Friday, the. fact that it was Totenberg, the fact. that her excuse is that she heard. Roberts saying things. I don't think Roberts would just like. hide the ball there in a number of. retirements and go, "And so we have.

Judge so-and-so, Judge so-and-so, Justice Alito, Justice so-and-so.". You know, "Ah, there." That's not the. way it would go down. I'm sure it would. be a little more ceremonial. "And. everybody, I have big news." He wouldn't. just like sandwich it in. I'm not buying. this excuse, but that's what they're. going with. I have no firm evidence, just to be clear, that can conclusively. say that they're not telling the truth, but I think Alito wanted to do it on his. own terms. He didn't want to do it. today. My prediction is in two or three. weeks we'll hear Alito, maybe even.

longer at this point. They'll delay it, so it feels like it's on his terms. I. also wonder what Justice Clarence Thomas. was doing when he was on Capitol Hill. having secret meetings yesterday. It was. kind of odd that he was on Capitol Hill. Let me bring in Harry Litman from. Talking Fed's YouTube, Substack, and. podcast. Harry, you look at the final. rulings that were made. Justice Alito's. stamp of, in my view, fascism, hate, and. destruction of the Supreme Court was all.

over these opinions. It seemed that he. was building to this moment, but he. wanted it to be on his schedule. That's. how I was reading it anyway before this. announcement. And now you have all of. this, you know, confusion or whatever, but I think he's going to resign. I. think Thomas will resign. You and I have. been speculating. What do you make of. this all, Harry? >> Um, first let me let me start with what. you just said, this final flurry of. opinions. The last um few weeks by Alito. have really been. atrocious. So, today he endorses the.

view of Thomas that this broad statement. in the 14th Amendment only means, uh. because that was what was in the minds. of the framers that children of slaves. are citizens of the country. This. statement doesn't say that, doesn't. remotely say that. There's no principle. of constitutional interpretation. In. fact, it's been hugely discredited to. say you go back and ask the motivation.

in the people's minds. They wrote, "If. you're born here and you're subject to. the jurisdiction thereof." And they. plainly are. That just means you're. subject to the laws, you're a citizen, full stop. And that Alito and Thomas. were so grudgingly trying to construe it. uh to in in exactly the way, by the way, that Trump wanted was a horror show and. a footnote to yes, an opinion that as. predicted and very fortunately ended the.

right way, but man oh man, Kavanaugh. plus three uh. of the of the justices, the the foremost. conservative, were were ready to go the. other direction. That is uh stunning and. nauseating, really. Uh now, also Alito, again and again, maybe the the strongest. sort of. social culture warrior on the court, and. maybe the one who's most personally. acrimonious. You had that weird back and. forth with Sotomayor a couple uh weeks.

ago where he was totally in the wrong. He he is sort of dyspeptically said, "If. I'd known you were going to read from. the bench, I would have said more." But. he did know or he was informed. So, but. there's no apology forthcoming. But all. the bad story lines, uh and in. particular, all the to my mind, I've. just had a Substack on this, the really. biggest decisions of the term, culminating in the slaughter case, what.

the and they've just over a number of. years now just completely demolished. what we learned growing up in law school. and third grade was a whole huge part of. government running on expertise, non-partisan. conduct for the American people. basically out the window. It's a huge. retrenchment. It's not even I mean cuz. it's going back to where it was. Okay, but the Alito point itself. So, you.

know, I'm I'm with you. I mean I I I hear you. not saying, "Look, uh you're predicting. it, but it already stood to reason that. this is they've definitely done their. their big blows and damage and if they. can and now might be the last chance. depending on the midterms for them to. try to shove through just as the Senate. did with Amy Coney Barrett to um very.

very you know, mini-me replacements for. Thomas and Alito, but much younger. Of. course, there'll be immediate question, will Trump go that direction or will he. go with as he's tended to do in Trump. 2.0, the most completely. reflexively loyal to him like. >> [snorts]. >> Emil Bovay. But on your point, it's yes, she falls on her sword completely. Maybe. that'll turn out to be the explanation,

but it is bizarre. Nina Totenberg, a. dean of not just Supreme Court. reporting, but this kind of Supreme. Court reporting. What's going on behind. the scenes? And at first, they came out. with a disavowal. That was already Okay, man, how do you screw that up? Um but. then it gets worse because she. overheard. Robert, but falsely and she mentions it. to two of her. people, one of whom's in the court and.

then they go running with it. That is, you know, bizarre on steroids. And I'll just say, again, I don't know, the denial is emphatic, but your point, Ben, is the possible counter-narrative. of what happened here. You get I've. been, you know, present for a dozen, easily, retirements of the Supreme Court. And. it's very well understood. A, they pick. their terms, but B,

they inform the president. I'm thinking. especially of White and of Kennedy and. of Marshall. Their first order of. business is to tell the White House. And. you can certainly imagine a scenario. where. Alito let it slip, and it was already. pre-written. That that I would have been the case. with all of the news sources. You write. that story in advance, like you write an. obituary in advance. But it might. already have been,

written with a promise, this is this is. the ways of Washington. Nina Totenberg, you're the dean, you can have this. story, but you must must must embargo it. until I've done my protocol and what I. want to do, talk to my wife and family, perhaps, or certainly talk to the White. House. And that's that's a sacrosanct, you know, messing that up is a real. blunder on the part of reporters. Which.

makes this counter-supposition a little. bit weird, too. It's it's like a little. crazy, however you slice it. But if that. happened, then it would be a huge oh. moment. You notice that Totenberg. actually apologized to Alito, not just. to the people, not just to the Supreme. Court bar. And. it would absolutely be her job to very. quickly retreat and try to cover her. tracks, and those tracks would be to.

make it seem without saying anything. If. you read her her statements carefully, they don't exactly say this isn't. happening, but they do say really kind. of. uh it's it's hard not to be incredulous. about this. She misheard the. um Chief Justice say this. She she's. just way too sophisticated for that. So, something's weird however you slice it. And yeah, I think your supposition, and. I realize it's only that, we can't say. more, of thinking, you know, in a couple.

weeks he'll do it and on his own terms, is a very plausible interpretation of a. very kind of gonzo and um strange turn. of events. >> Everybody, make sure you subscribe to. Harry Litman's YouTube channel. It's. called Talking Feds. So, search right. now on YouTube, Talking Feds, check it. out. Thanks, Harry. >> Thank you, Ben. >> Everybody, hit subscribe here. Let's get. to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay.

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