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

Pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside 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 decision later this year, in Washington, U.S., May 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

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

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it is not going to succeed," the chief justice said in a statement. "The work of the Courtroom is not going to be affected in any method."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is nearly unprecedented for the excessive courtroom, where leaks of any variety are exceedingly uncommon.

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

The draft in this high-profile abortion case was created in February, in line with 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 docket employees have an exemplary and essential tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Courtroom and the community of public servants who work right here," he mentioned.

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

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of called for the form of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting decisions about abortion within the palms of states instead of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, certainly 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 appropriate to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion entry don't pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls's Well being Organization would aspect with the state of Mississippi in protection of a law that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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

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