Page:Dobbs public report.pdf/9

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information. “Confidential information” means any information relating to the Court or its employees that is not made public through means authorized by the Court or by the law clerk’s appointing Justice, including without limitation:

  • the outcome of a case; the vote in a case; the identity of the author of a majority, concurring, or dissenting opinion; the date on which an opinion is to be announced;
  • the positions or preliminary ideas or views of any Justice with respect to cases that have been before the Court, are pending before it, or are likely to come before it;
  • information relating to the Court’s policies, procedures, and practices; and
  • personal information about individuals who work at the Court.
Nothing in this Code precludes the reporting of potential misconduct to the law clerk’s appointing Justice, the Chief Justice, the Counselor to the Chief Justice, the Legal Counsel, or the Human Resources Director

Law Clerk Code of Conduct, Canon 2. It further provides:

A law clerk should never disclose to any person any confidential information received in the course of the law clerk’s duties, nor should any law clerk employ such information for private gain. A law clerk must maintain all Court-related information in accordance with policies, guidelines, and agreements adopted by the Court’s Office of Information Technology.

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Except as authorized by the Justice, the clerk must avoid any hint about the Justice’s likely action in a pending case. All intra- and inter-Chambers communications are confidential and communications from the Chambers of another Justice enjoy the same protections of confidentiality, including communications from one law clerk to another discussing the work of the Court. The temptation to discuss interesting pending or decided cases among friends, spouses, or other family members, for example, must be scrupulously resisted.

Id., Canon 3. “Any breach of these provisions is prejudicial to the administration of justice and therefore will subject the law clerk to appropriate

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