Jodi Kantor

You know, at that point, I was, like, a much more mature, experienced investigative journalist.

And so I was able to say...

Wait a second.

Nine of the most powerful people in the country work in the dark.

The work they do is a locked job.

They would argue probably that they're the most transparent branch of government because of arguments and opinions.

But in fact, all we know about the deciding of the law is what they want us to know.

And there are all these basic things we don't know about the justices, even as they make these big moves.

How partisan are they really?

What are their relationships like with one another?

Who's doing the work?

Is it the clerks or is it the justices?

What's the division?

And I just said to myself...

Journalists scrutinize power.

That is job one.

And we can't have a Supreme Court-sized exception in the middle of our compact with the public.

And so I started to ask myself,

what information might be obtainable about the Supreme Court?

I want to try to learn more, not in the sense of the Dobbs leak so much on like getting one opinion or there had been a couple of books written in the past, but I thought to myself, could the New York Times create a system of sustained inquiry on