Chief Justice Roberts issued a statement today bemoaning the “betrayal of the confidences of the the court” and “egregious breach of trust.” His histrionics were loud enough to carry all the way down Constitution Avenue to the Reflecting Pool, as he called for an investigation into the leak. Stephen Bates, a journalism professor and legal scholar, thought his complaint was a bit overboard. “The court does seem like a pretty frail institution if its legitimacy is crumbling because of one leak. CIA, FBI, NSA, etc. are supposed to operate in secrecy, but nobody screams about lost legitimacy when info gets out.” The court can survive just fine when its secrets are aired. Just look at the recent reporting of CNN’s Joan Biskupic, who has done spectacular work revealing how the Roberts court stuffs and cooks its legal sausage, and the Republic still stands.

It appears that no law was broken, unless the leak was the product of a break-in or hack. “I’d be really surprised if it ended up with any kind of criminal charge,” University of Texas Law School Professor Stephen I. Vladeck told the Washington Post, speaking for the consensus.

The leak has obviously dinged the Supremes’ legal supremacy for the moment. They will recover. But the upside of the leak is grand. The public has gained a new awareness of where a court majority plans to take the nation after a half-century of legal abortion. Getting a two- or three-month preview of that plan in a midterm year straight from the horse’s pen amounts to a journalistic coup of the highest order. The government works to keep you in the dark. The press to shine the light. Heaven bless the press.