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 after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito making 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 would toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that is not the courtroom's final determination.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

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

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is just about unprecedented for the excessive court docket, where leaks of any variety are exceedingly rare.

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

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

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

"Court docket staff 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 trust that's an affront to the Court and the group 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 at the moment are pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights by way of laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and many called for the form of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing choices about abortion within the arms of states as a substitute of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one among six conservatives on a court docket that has moved sharply to the proper 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 Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. Those pivotal rulings protect the best to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion access 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 in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies's Well being Group would aspect with the state of Mississippi in defense of a law that might 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 selections.

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