>

OK, you make a good argument about what an actual or implied threat against someone's character would be, but there still has to be an element of monetary or property benefit for the extorter.
Which seems wild. Am I allowed to blackmail a legislator? I must be wrong, there must be other laws for coercing public official, and yes there are laws in some places making it a crime to coerce votes, etc
Alito has chosen the scapegoat. >

I am waiting for the accusation and the target to push for discovery.  They will accuse someone who is a lawyer and well educated - a clerk.  Clerks aren't off the street people.  They are college educated lawyers.  If one get accused they aren't going to roll over and give their future to an accusation.
This is going to be a very public battle.  If a scapegoat has been chosen it might be someone who was part of the Alito crew willing to take the hit for Alito or someone higher up.  I don't think they will try to accuse someone else who will fight back if there is thin evidence.
I do know that Alito would have no problem ruining someone's life to protect his own station.
This should be intersting. >

Maybe, or they could be a diehard believer, and voluntarily roll over. Possibly in exchange for some sort of kickback (money, future job opportunities). >

Theres a shitton of money to be made on Fox or on a conservative think tank... They'll roll over. >

I'm sure they will make sure the fall guy is well taken care of. >

It's like the mafia, you take the fall for the boss and he makes sure that your family is taken care of. >

I’d say all of the justices should turn over anything and everything asked of the clerks first.  Especially Thomas >

What I found interesting in this article is an anti-abortion leader was informed of their decision in the Hobby Lobby case in 2014 weeks before it was made public.  
The justices are full of it.  But my bet is a clerk or two will be the fall guys here. >

Yeah, I think that one of the justices or their family member(s) did the leaking, and they are looking to pin it on a lowly law clerk.  This will destroy that law clerks life, too. >

Let’s be honest, this clerk will be kicked out of SCOTUS, and walk right into their new job at the Federalist Society. >

FedSoc is a terrible consolation prize to having your pick of any law firm and coast to partnership where you’ll make $2m/year >

They’ll just write a book and CPAC will buy 10 million copies to make them a “best seller” and hand out at events for the next few years. >

Most people have stopped buying/reading books, so the author would only need a fraction of that 10 million to make the book a NYT best seller.

To make the list, it is estimated that novels sell from 1,000 to 10,000 copies per week >

Whats interesting here is that nothing illegal was done. It was just rude I guess? Theres no law saying you can't leak draft opinions. >

That's not clear. It's possible a crime was committed here. 
Alito was able to convince the right wing justices to sign on to his draft opinion, but according to many sources, Roberts was working hard to convince Kavanaugh and Gorsuch to switch and instead sign on to Roberts' opinion, which allowed states to further restrict abortions but kept the basic framework of Roe intact.  If true, then it's plausible that the leak of the draft decision was intended to prevent any potential defectors from switching. If that was the intent behind the leak, well that's extortion, which is a crime. >

How is that extortion? I see that maybe it opens up room for extortion.

Code of the District of Columbia
§ 22–3251. Extortion.
(a) A person commits the offense of extortion if:
(1) That person obtains or attempts to obtain the property of another with the other’s consent which was induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force or violence or by wrongful threat of economic injury; or
(2) That person obtains or attempts to obtain property of another with the other’s consent which was obtained under color or pretense of official right.

Ok so to be extortion, you'd have to argue that a vote is property that can be "obtained" and that the vote was obtained via a threat or action of economic injury.
So unless we get some sort of paper trail of a threat, I'm not sure it's extortion.
Virginia for example:

Extorting money, etc., by threats.
If any person threaten injury to the character, person, or property ofanother person or accuse him of any offense or threaten to report him asbeing illegally present in the United States and thereby extort money,property, or pecuniary benefit or any note, bond, or other evidence of debtfrom him or any other person, he shall be guilty of a Class 5 felony.

Pecuniary means monetary, and we still need a threat of injury to character.
I don't see it. >

It's pretty simple.

"I've heard that you're getting cold feet about signing on to my draconian opinion and that you're considering instead putting your name on Roberts' opinion for the final decision. Well, I've gone ahead and leaked the draft showing that you signed on to my opinion. So if you change your vote now, it's going to appear as if you caved to leftist Dem activist pressure. Have fun being pilloried by Tucker every night for the foreseeable future. And also, let's remember that those anti-abortion folks are not to be fucked with. Just ask Dr. George Tiller. Would hate for something to happen to you and your family because you chose to side with the godless libs over the rights of the unborn. So I can count on your signing on to my opinion, right?"