https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-conservative-reverend-testifies-samuel-002346385.html
Ex-Conservative Reverend Testifies That Samuel Alito Leaked Outcome Of 2014 Decision
Paul Blumenthal
Thu, December 8, 2022 at 7:23 PM·6 min read
Rev. Rob Schenck, the former head of the conservative evangelical group Faith & Action, affirmed under oath on Thursday that he learned the outcome of the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision ahead of time from one of his “stealth missionaries” to the Supreme Court, after she’d had dinner with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife.
“Yes,” Schenck said when asked whether a supporter of Faith & Action told him that she learned the outcome of Alito’s Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision after having dinner with him.
Schenck’s affirmation came during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee examining Operation Higher Court, a pressure campaign that Schenck waged targeting conservative justices, and the Supreme Court’s lack of a binding ethics code to police conflicts of interest and judicial recusals.
The hearing followed reports by Politico and The New York Times about Schenck’s efforts to pressure conservatives justices to ― as he put it ― “shore up their resolve” to issue “unapologetic opinions” that could lead to the end of national abortion rights by overturning the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.
“I called this ‘our ministry of emboldenment,’” Schenck said.
Schenck, formerly a militant opponent of abortion rights who has since distanced himself from the religious right, encouraged his supporters to pray with and befriend justices after gaining access to them through contributions to the Supreme Court Historical Society. One such couple, Donald and Gayle Wright, befriended Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia, treating them to dinners, vacations at their residence in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and at least one hunting trip.
Ex-Conservative Reverend Testifies That Samuel Alito Leaked Outcome Of 2014 Decision
Paul Blumenthal
Thu, December 8, 2022 at 7:23 PM·6 min read
Rev. Rob Schenck, the former head of the conservative evangelical group Faith & Action, affirmed under oath on Thursday that he learned the outcome of the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision ahead of time from one of his “stealth missionaries” to the Supreme Court, after she’d had dinner with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife.
“Yes,” Schenck said when asked whether a supporter of Faith & Action told him that she learned the outcome of Alito’s Hobby Lobby v. Burwell decision after having dinner with him.
Schenck’s affirmation came during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee examining Operation Higher Court, a pressure campaign that Schenck waged targeting conservative justices, and the Supreme Court’s lack of a binding ethics code to police conflicts of interest and judicial recusals.
The hearing followed reports by Politico and The New York Times about Schenck’s efforts to pressure conservatives justices to ― as he put it ― “shore up their resolve” to issue “unapologetic opinions” that could lead to the end of national abortion rights by overturning the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.
“I called this ‘our ministry of emboldenment,’” Schenck said.
Schenck, formerly a militant opponent of abortion rights who has since distanced himself from the religious right, encouraged his supporters to pray with and befriend justices after gaining access to them through contributions to the Supreme Court Historical Society. One such couple, Donald and Gayle Wright, befriended Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia, treating them to dinners, vacations at their residence in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and at least one hunting trip.
