This reporting is remarkable, not only for its substance but for the fact that so much inside information has been leaked. (This is the biggest leak since the leak of the draft Dobbs abortion decision, although this of course is coming after the opinions have been issued).

I had hypothesized when these cases were coming to the Court about some “grand bargain” going on behind the scenes in the Trump disqualification and Trump immunity cases; I could not have been more incorrect. I had mistaken Chief Justice Roberts for someone who put the public legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the desire to rise above politics above all else.

The Chief Justice led a charge in the Trump immunity case in an attempt to totally kill the case; he resisted efforts from Justice Sotomayor Toward compromise. The only compromise was to hear the case before the election, which is hardly anything.

Our speculation was right that in the Trump disqualification case out of Colorado, the big fight behind the scenes was over whether the conservative majority would include dicta that would make it harder for Congress to try to disqualify Trump should he win the electoral college vote in the 2024 elections.

The other tidbit in here, less consequential, is that Justice Alito apparently was no longer listed as the author of Fischer—the case involving obstruction charges connected to the Jan. 6, 2021 invasion of the Capitol—likely because the information came out about the flags Justice Alito’s wife had been flying, potentially signalling support for the “stop the steal movement.”

The reporting shows a partisan and divided Court, one in which when it comes to political cases, the conservative majority is showing itself even less interested in compromise and common ground.