US Spreme Court Justice Gorsuch says US Supreme Court concerned of leaks

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch expressed unease on Sunday concerning the continuing leaks of internal deliberations at the nation's highest judicial body, citing the need for the nine justices to be able to engage in "candid conversations."



Gorsuch, a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority, made his comments in the aftermath of publication by the New York Times last month of leaked memos related to a Supreme Court action in 2016 blocking Democratic President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan.



It was the latest in a number of leaks involving the court in recent years.



"We want some transparency, but we also have to leave room for candid conversations and deliberations with one another," Gorsuch, appointed to the court in 2017 by Republican President Donald Trump, said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.



Gorsuch pointed to the availability of live audio of the court's oral arguments as an example of transparency.



The court has dramatically increased the use of its so-called emergency docket - also called the "shadow" docket - handing Trump repeated wins since he returned to office last year that allowed him to pursue aggressive and sometimes novel uses of executive authority while challenges played out in lower courts.

The most prominent leak occurred in 2022 when the news outlet Politico published a draft of the Supreme Court's blockbuster ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade landmark that had legalized abortion nationwide weeks before the decision was formally issued.