SUPREME COURT

Search for Supreme Court Leaker Falls to Former Army Colonel

People who know Gail Curley described the former Army colonel and military lawyer as possessing the right temperament for a highly charged leak investigation

By Jessica Gresko • Published May 24, 2022 • Updated on May 24, 2022 at 1:29 am



This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Col. Gail Curley.

When Gail Curley began her job as Marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court less than a year ago, she would have expected to work mostly behind the scenes: overseeing the court's police force and the operations of the marble-columned building where the justices work. ... Her most public role was supposed to be in the courtroom, where the Marshal bangs a gavel and announces the entrance of the court's nine justices. Her brief script includes “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” — meaning “hear ye” — and concludes, "God save the United States and this Honorable Court.”

Earlier this month, however, Curley was handed a bombshell of an assignment, overseeing an unprecedented breach of Supreme Court secrecy, the leak of a draft opinion and apparent votes in a major abortion case. Leaks to Politico suggest that the court seems ready to overturn {Roe v. Wade}, the 1973 decision that women have a constitutional right to abortion. That has sparked protests and round-the-clock security at justices' homes, demonstrations at the court and concerns about violence following the court's ultimate decision.

People who know Curley described the former Army colonel and military lawyer as possessing the right temperament for a highly charged leak investigation: smart, private, apolitical and unlikely to be intimidated.

“I’m confident that if the truth can be found out here, she’ll find it out and present it in an unbiased manner,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Patrick Huston, her direct supervisor at the Pentagon in her last military job before the Supreme Court. Huston said he was incredibly impressed by Curley and that she had a tremendous reputation as a leader, but even as her boss of two years he didn't know if she had a spouse or children.

{snip}