3 days ago
Supreme Court Suffers Embarrassing ‘Software Malfunction'
The U.S. Supreme Court has suffered an embarrassing technical screw-up after releasing the cases it would hear to attorneys and others in the legal community days ahead of schedule. It's the second such event in less than 12 months, following the accidental release of major case updates last year.
Notifications about which cases would be granted or denied review next week were not supposed to be released until Monday, but an 'apparent software malfunction' saw the decisions released to lawyers on Friday afternoon.
Mass confusion reigned as multiple attorneys compared the information in their inboxes to the court's online docket, which did not match up. As such, the court then made the unusual move of publicly releasing its orders list.
'Due to an apparent software malfunction, email notifications concerning action by the Court scheduled to be included on the order list set for release on Monday, June 9, at 9:30 a.m., were sent out this afternoon,' Supreme Court Public Information Officer Patricia McCabe said in a statement sent to reporters. 'As a result, the Court is issuing that order list now.'
In June of last year, the court suffered a similar technical issue which saw a major abortion rights ruling briefly uploaded in error. This followed the serious leak of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which set off a major political firestorm.
'Accidents happen, and the court should be encouraged to provide more access to its rulings, like the email notification service that apparently caused today's glitch,' Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center has said.
The Supreme Court has been contacted for comment.
