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

Professional-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 preparing for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice later this yr, 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 docket opinion that will toss out longstanding abortion rights, but famous that isn't the court docket's remaining decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

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

"I have directed the Marshal of the Court docket to launch an investigation into the source of the leak," Roberts stated.

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

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

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

The justices, law clerks and different staff of the court are "intensely loyal to the institution and devoted to the rule of regulation," Roberts stated.

"Courtroom employees have an exemplary and necessary custom 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 belief that is an affront to the Court docket 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 at the moment are pushing for Congress to instantly codify abortion rights by laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and many referred to as for the form 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 hands 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 docket that has moved sharply to the suitable 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 Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Those pivotal rulings shield the proper to get an abortion earlier than the point of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Group would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a law that would ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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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