If this article by Jan Crawford of CBS News can be believed, one of the Justices on the Supreme Court was a source for her, and they dished dirt on Chief Justice John Roberts. Take a look (emphasis mine):
Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court’s four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama’s health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations.
Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy – believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law – led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold.
“He was relentless,” one source said of Kennedy’s efforts. “He was very engaged in this.”
But this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into, “You’re on your own.”
It sure sounds like she’s directly quoting a Justice, but even if she is not it must have been an authorized disclosure. I can’t imagine a clerk risking their legal career to leak something like that. Especially because the next part makes it sound like the conservatives on the Court reacted to Roberts’ decision with hostility and spite:
The conservatives refused to join any aspect of his opinion, including sections with which they agreed, such as his analysis imposing limits on Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause, the sources said.
Instead, the four joined forces and crafted a highly unusual, unsigned joint dissent. They deliberately ignored Roberts’ decision, the sources said, as if they were no longer even willing to engage with him in debate.
Isn’t it nice to know that the Supreme Court of the United States is as dysfunctional as the House of Representatives?