At a Glance
- Nicholas Moore, 24, will plead guilty to hacking the Supreme Court’s filing system
- He accessed the system 25 times between August and October 2023
- What documents he viewed remains undisclosed
- Why it matters: A single citizen penetrated the nation’s highest court digital vault for months undetected
A Tennessee hacker is poised to admit he repeatedly cracked the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic docket, exposing a gap in the judiciary’s cyber armor.
Federal prosecutors say Nicholas Moore of Springfield infiltrated the court’s document portal on 25 separate days over a three-month span. Court papers accuse the 24-year-old of “intentionally access[ing] a computer without authorization” and pulling data from a “protected computer” each time.
The charging document offers no specifics on which filings Moore saw or the method he used. Investigators have not disclosed whether sensitive petitions, draft opinions or sealed motions were viewed.
Moore is set to enter his guilty plea via video link Friday before a federal judge in the District of Columbia. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.
A spokesperson for that office told News Of Philadelphia prosecutors will not elaborate beyond the public filings. The Department of Justice press office did not return News Of Philadelphia‘s request for additional details. Defense attorney Eugene Ohm also declined to comment.
Court Watch analyst Seamus Hughes, who tracks new federal cases, first flagged the sealed proceeding on Monday.
The breach is the latest in a string of cyber incidents hitting the federal courts. In August the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts confirmed it had bolstered firewalls after Russian government-linked hackers penetrated its electronic case records system.
That prior incident exposed sensitive case data across multiple districts and prompted the judiciary’s policy arm to mandate new multi-factor authentication controls for attorneys filing documents.
Investigators have not said whether Moore’s intrusion exploited the same vulnerabilities later patched after the Russian campaign.
Attack Timeline
- August 2023 – First unauthorized access detected
- October 2023 – Final intrusion logged by investigators
- January 13, 2026 – Plea hearing scheduled
What’s Still Unknown
- Scope of documents viewed or downloaded
- Whether Moore acted alone or shared data
- Motivation behind the hacks
- Security upgrades triggered by the breach
The Supreme Court itself has not issued public comment on the compromise of its filing platform. The court’s electronic system handles thousands of documents yearly, including merit briefs, amicus submissions and emergency applications that can carry confidential business or national-security information.
Penetrating the portal typically requires valid attorney credentials or specialized access codes, raising questions about how Moore evaded authentication checks for months.
Federal sentencing guidelines for computer fraud count each unauthorized access as a separate violation, meaning Moore faces potential prison time for each of the 25 episodes.
Prosecutors charged the case under the general computer intrusion statute rather than the more specific statute protecting government systems, suggesting the Supreme Court portal may not carry the elevated protections afforded military or intelligence networks.
The plea hearing is expected to yield a detailed factual statement that could fill current gaps in the public record.
Key Takeaways
- A 24-year-old repeatedly breached the Supreme Court’s filing system
- The intrusions went undetected for three months
- Officials have not revealed what data was compromised
- The incident follows a separate Russian hack of broader court networks
