It seems that much of the focus of the Supreme Court leak has been on the alleged switcheroo Chief Justice John Roberts pulled in reversing his position.

But in the larger picture, isn’t the leak the real story?

According to those Court watchers who’ve examined the content of the leak, the leaker almost certainly had to have been a fellow conservative Justice.

Which is truly shocking, given the Court’s tradition of omerta about any intracourt discussions about cases.

And is troubling, too, given the precedent it sets:  If a Justice is outraged by a colleague changing his stand, he can leak that outrage to the media.

Which leads to distrust, which leads to less than candor.  Do we want a Supreme Court with Justices who worry about their deliberations, emails, etc., being leaked by another Justice?  Does that compromise honest back and forth?

No, the Justice who leaked to the CBS reporter has done some serious damage to the Court.  And he should be held accountable.

Wouldn’t you like to know which conservative was the leaker?  He should be shamed and ashamed.  Did he think about how his unprecedented behavior would affect his fellow Justices or future deliberations?  Obviously, those weren’t concerns of his.  

Too bad, because the leak, at least in the world of the Court, is much more significant than any supposed reversal by one Justice.