From ScotusBlog: Reverend who accused Alito of 2014 leak in Hobby Lobby speaks before House Judiciary Committee

Some accuse the group of lobbying the Supreme Court.

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Efforts to bolster Supreme Court ethics standards gained little ground in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, as Democrats and Republicans butted heads over familiar talking points. In what will likely be the committee’s last hearing before the House majority changes hands, Democrats called former anti-abortion lobbyist Rev. Robert Schenck, along with ethics and legal experts, to testify in support of strengthening ethics standards at the court.

Schenck made headlines last month when he told The New York Times that he had received advanced notice of the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. from Gayle and Donald Wright, a couple who had dined with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife. Alito denied that he or his wife shared any information about the opinion. Gayle Wright denied that she or her husband, now deceased, had learned the outcome from the Alitos.

Until recently, Schenck ran a 20-year campaign he called Operation Higher Court through which he recruited wealthy donors to befriend and influence conservative justices. These donors, called “stealth missionaries,” were instructed to strengthen the beliefs of justices who “shared our conservative social and religious sensibilities” through private dinners, prayer circles, and vacations.