In 1972, while Roe was under deliberation, an unbylined Washington Post story detailed the justices’ internal wrangling on that subject. The Post story — which appeared days after the justices ordered a second round of arguments in the case — was attributed to anonymous informed sources and did not quote any draft opinions or internal memoranda, but described them in significant detail.

In 1979, ABC News Supreme Court correspondent Tim O’Brien went on air with reports predicting the outcome of two decisions that were days away from release. Chief Justice Warren Burger launched an inquiry into whether anyone at the court had breached protocol, and a Government Printing Office employee involved in setting type for the court’s rulings was transferred to a different division. The staffer denied leaking any information.

Prior to the Supreme Court’s high-profile 2012 decision upholding Obamacare’s individual mandate, some legal analysts believed they saw indications that the justices’ internal deliberations had leaked.

Eleven days before that ruling, conservative columnist Avik Roy, writing in Forbes, cited “third-hand” sources predicting that Justice Anthony Kennedy would vote to strike down the mandate.