Sure. It's not a dirty, little secret. It's not a secret of any kind. But it is the judge who tells the clerks what the outcome of the decision will be, and no responsible judge does not read and carefully edit and rewrite as necessary all of these opinions. It is a point of pride if the opinion writes as a clerk makes it into the books virtually untouched, but that just means you understood what the judge wanted and wrote it well.
'. . . no responsible judge . . ."
These are the operative words in your missive. No responsible judge would leave it to clerks. This is most certainly true.