Supreme Courtroom says leaked abortion draft is authentic; Roberts orders investigation into leak

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outdoors the U.S. Supreme Courtroom after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination later this year, in Washington, U.S., Could 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court docket opinion that might toss out longstanding abortion rights, however famous that isn't the courtroom's remaining decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court docket was supposed to undermine the integrity of our operations, it won't succeed," the chief justice stated in a statement. "The work of the Court docket is not going to be affected in any manner."

"I've directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the supply of the leak," Roberts stated.

The advance publication of a draft opinion is virtually unprecedented for the excessive courtroom, the place leaks of any kind are exceedingly rare.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and essential a part of the Court docket's confidential deliberative work."

The draft in this high-profile abortion case was created in February, based on Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, regulation clerks and other employees of the court docket are "intensely loyal to the establishment and dedicated to the rule of law," Roberts said.

"Court docket workers have an exemplary and important custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the belief of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that is an affront to the Court and the neighborhood of public servants who work here," he said.

The publication of the draft opinion rocked Washington, triggering waves of shock and fury from Democrats who are now pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights via laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of known as for the type of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting decisions about abortion in the palms of states as an alternative of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, considered one of six conservatives on a court that has moved sharply to the proper in the wake of the Trump administration.

Alito's draft would toss out the precedent set by the 1973 case Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed in 1992 by Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. These pivotal rulings shield the proper to get an abortion before the purpose of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion access don't pose an "undue burden."

Alito wrote: "We maintain that Roe and Casey must be overruled."

The draft of the opinion of the court docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls's Health Organization would aspect with the state of Mississippi in defense of a regulation that might ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

Lower federal courts had blocked the legislation on the grounds that it violates the protections established by the Roe and Casey decisions.

That is breaking news. Please examine again for updates.