Samuel
Corum/Bloomberg)
Remember
when
the
Supreme
Court
was
absolutely
consumed
with
figuring
out
who
leaked
the
Dobbs
draft
opinion?
They
assigned
the
Marshal
to
investigate,
brought
in
outside
help,
and
made
scores
of
employees
sign
affidavits.
The
response
was
immediate,
muscular,
and
deeply
unserious.
The
investigation
did
basically
everything
except
interview
the
justices,
because
why
interview
anyone
with
both
opportunity
AND
motive?
Say,
a
justice
credibly
accused
of
leaking
the
results
of
other
decisions
who
might
have
feared
that
colleagues
would
water
down
the
maximalist
draft
before
the
case
came
down?
No
need
to
check
in
on
anyone
like
that!
A
witchhunt
ironically
launched
to
defend
an
opinion
based
on
witchhunters.
And
after
several
months,
it
inevitably
fizzled.
It
was
we’re
all
trying
to
find
the
guy
who
did
this
meme
if
the
cops
just
accepted
the
man
in
the
hot
dog
costume
at
his
word.
Well,
it
turns
out
they
might’ve
spent
less
time
worrying
about
threats
from
inside
the
building
and
more
time
assessing
how
easily
someone
could
waltz
in
through
the
digital
front
door.
A
24-year-old
from
Springfield,
Tennessee,
named
Nicholas
Moore
is
set
to
plead
guilty
to
hacking
the
Supreme
Court’s
electronic
filing
system.
Not
once
or
twice,
but
25
times
over
a
two-month
span.
If
the
Supreme
Court
didn’t
know
he
was
hanging
out
in
the
system
for
two
months,
is
it
still
trespassing?
When
does
adverse
possession
kick
in?
Court
Watch’s
Seamus
Hughes,
who
first
spotted
the
filing,
posted
his
reaction
on
X:
Indeed.
The
filing
is
notably
spare
on
details.
Maybe
Jeanine
Pirro
learned
that
less
is
more
if
she
needed
to
pursue
an
indictment
without
D.C.
grand
jurors
responding
with
a
resounding,
“Are
you
kidding,
lady?”
The
former
Fox
News
personality
who
now
serves
as
U.S.
Attorney
has
had
a
rough
go
of
it
in
D.C.,
between
the
juries
refusing
to
convict
and
judges
openly
questioning
whether
her
office
understands
basic
Fourth
Amendment
principles
—
but
now
she’s
found
a
case
where
the
defendant
is
just
going
to
plead
guilty
and
save
her
the
risk
of
another
embarrassing
fail.
The
charge
itself
rests
on
the
Computer
Fraud
and
Abuse
Act,
a
statute
prosecutors
love
the
way
DIYers
love
duct
tape.
The
CFAA
is
intended
to
put
sophisticated
hackers
in
prison,
but
in
practice,
prosecutors
deploy
it
whenever
a
computer
makes
someone
feel
bad.
Its
vague
“unauthorized
access”
language
has
become
a
hammer
used
against
people
for
logging
into
computers
when
company
policy
should
have
blocked
access.
It’s
a
computer
crime
law
written
for
an
era
where
our
grasp
of
the
technology
came
from
movies
like
The
Net,
with
that
girl
from
the
bus.
Did
Moore
maliciously
hack
into
the
system,
or
did
he
just
walk
blithely
through
an
open
door?
Unfortunately,
it
wouldn’t
matter
much
under
the
CFAA.
Prosecutors
told
TechCrunch
they
“cannot
provide
any
more
information
that
hasn’t
already
been
made
public.”
But
based
on
the
bare-bones
of
the
Information,
the
defendant
only
gained
access
to
the
electronic
filing
system
as
opposed
to
the
Court’s
emails
or
document
management
system.
Moore
presumably
wasn’t
getting
access
to
internal
deliberations
or
Clarence
Thomas’s
next
billionaire-funded
luxury
vacation
through
the
filing
system.
Not
to
downplay
the
seriousness
of
the
breach
—
insider
access
to
the
filing
system
would
afford
access
to
any
sealed
documents
—
but
this
doesn’t
sound
like
the
start
of
a
future
Dobbs
leak.
This
marks
the
latest
humiliating
incident
for
the
federal
judiciary’s
cybersecurity
prowess.
Last
August,
we
learned
that
Russian
government
hackers
had
breached
the
broader
federal
court
filing
system.
After
years
of
claiming
that
PACER
was
a
multibillion-dollar
endeavor
—
before
we
learned
that
it
was
basically
a
federal
judiciary
slush
fund
—
the
federal
judiciary
belatedly
committed
to
beefing
up
cybersecurity.
This
case
serves
as
a
reminder
of
how
behind
the
times
the
judiciary
was
in
2023.
Are
they
any
better
in
2026?
If
they
approached
cybersecurity
with
the
same
vim
and
vigor
they
brought
to
revamping
the
Court’s
ethical
code,
let’s
say
no.
Man
to
plead
guilty
to
hacking
US
Supreme
Court
filing
system
[TechCrunch]
Earlier:
PACER
Gets
Pwned:
Hackers
Breach
Dinosaur
Filing
System
Everything
You
Need
To
Know
About
The
Supreme
Court
Leak
Report
But
The
Justices
Were
Afraid
To
Ask
No
Bills
Are
Only
The
Beginning
Of
Jeanine
Pirro’s
F-Ups
‘Do
You
Have
A
Lot
Of
Trouble
Answering
Questions
Generally
In
Life
Or
Just
When
You
Come
In
Front
Of
The
Court?’
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.