Sources have motives, and the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade raises a question as old as the Roman Empire. Cui bono? Who benefits?
Not the U.S. Supreme Court as an institution. Its reputation was in decline even before the extraordinary breach of its norms of confidentiality, with much of the nation persuaded that it is little different from the political branches of the government. The internal disarray the leak suggests, wholly at odds with the decorum prized by Chief Justice John Roberts, was a blow to the legitimacy of the court.
Relations among the justices, too, on the evidence of questioning at arguments and statements in opinions, have turned fraught and frosty.