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

Pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest exterior the U.S. Supreme Court docket after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito getting ready for a majority of the courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination later this year, in Washington, U.S., Might 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

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

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Courtroom was meant to undermine the integrity of our operations, it is not going to succeed," the chief justice mentioned in an announcement. "The work of the Court will not be affected in any method."

"I have 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 court docket, where leaks of any variety are exceedingly rare.

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

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

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

"Court workers have an exemplary and vital custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that's an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here," he mentioned.

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

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of referred to as for the kind of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting selections about abortion in the arms of states as a substitute of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one in all six conservatives on a courtroom that has moved sharply to the appropriate within 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 Planned Parenthood v. Casey. These pivotal rulings defend the precise to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Well being Group would side with the state of Mississippi in defense of a legislation that will ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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

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