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

Pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outdoors the U.S. Supreme Court docket after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito making ready for a majority of the court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this yr, in Washington, U.S., Could 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Court docket Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court opinion that will toss out longstanding abortion rights, however noted that is not the courtroom's ultimate decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court docket was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it won't succeed," the chief justice said in an announcement. "The work of the Court won't be affected in any way."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is virtually unprecedented for the high court docket, the place leaks of any variety are exceedingly rare.

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

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

The justices, law clerks and different employees of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the institution and devoted to the rule of law," Roberts mentioned.

"Courtroom staff have an exemplary and necessary custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that is an affront to the Court docket and the neighborhood of public servants who work right here," he stated.

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

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of called for the sort of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting choices about abortion within the hands of states as a substitute of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one of six conservatives on a courtroom that has moved sharply to the correct 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. Those pivotal rulings defend the fitting to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that regulations limiting abortion entry don't pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a legislation that will ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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

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