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Reuters General/ - Article, Sex, 30 de Março de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Supreme Court takes up healthcare in
secrecy
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON | Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:52pm EDT
(Reuters) - Supreme Court justices on Friday held
closed-door deliberations on President Barack
Obama's healthcare overhaul law, likely casting
preliminary votes on how they will eventually rule on
their highest-profile case in years.
In an institution known for keeping its secrets, no leaks
are likely before formal opinions have been written and
announced from the bench. That is not expected to
occur until late June, when the court is set to go on its
regular summer recess.
The justices' private conference, a meeting in which
they typically discuss and vote on cases heard earlier
in the week, came after three days of historic
arguments over the healthcare law that ended on
Wednesday.
Legal experts said only a handful of people - mainly
consisting of the nine justices and their law clerks -
know about the outcomes of these conferences, and
they do not talk about it. Law clerks are sworn to
secrecy.
"Confidentiality is drilled into clerks from day one," said
University of Richmond associate law professor Kevin
Walsh, a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia in the
court's 2003-04 term.
"The rules and warnings only heightened the obligation
we already felt to maintain confidentiality born out of
our respect for the Supreme Court and our desire to
protect it," he said.
"And it's not like working for the CIA, where you may
take secrets to the grave. The big news of any given
term - what the court has decided - all comes out into
the open by the end of June," Walsh said.
The Supreme Court's private conferences are held
with only the justices attending. The meeting room,
located on the second floor, is relatively small,
oak-paneled and with a fireplace and a rectangular
table. It is just off the chambers of Chief Justice John
Roberts.
"WE SHOULD REPORT IT"
In recent decades there have been no leaks of
Supreme Court rulings, including the momentous
2000 decision that stopped a Florida vote recount,
clearing the way for Republican George W. Bush to
become president over Democrat Al Gore.
There have been no leaks in high-stakes financial
cases including ones affecting the tobacco industry.
Stocks of insurers and other healthcare companies
could be roiled by any ruling on the two-year-old
healthcare law, Obama's signature domestic policy
achievement.
The last time Supreme Court leaks emerged as an
issue was under Chief Justice Warren Burger, who left
the court in 1986.
Then-ABC TV journalist Tim O'Brien reported in 1986
that the court the next day would strike down a key
part of a law to balance the U.S. government's budget.
He was right about the outcome, but the ruling did not
come down until weeks later.
In 1979 he correctly reported the ruling in a major libel
case involving the CBS News television show "60
Minutes."
Burger accused an employee in the printing shop of
tipping O'Brien and had the employee transferred. The
employee denied disclosing any information about the
ruling.
"The court has the right to protect its secrets," said
O'Brien, who has left ABC and who acknowledged that
leaks of rulings are rare.
"But if the news media learns about it, we should
report it," said O'Brien, an attorney who has taught law.
"People don't watch us or read us because of our
ability to keep the government's secrets."
In 1973 Time magazine correctly predicted the court's
historic decision that women have a constitutional right
to an abortion. Burger then warned all the law clerks
not to speak to or be seen with news reporters.
(Reporting By James Vicini and Joan Biskupic; Editing
by Kevin Drawbaugh and Xavier Briand)
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