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

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

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court docket opinion that may toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that isn't the court docket's remaining resolution.

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 is not going to succeed," the chief justice mentioned in a statement. "The work of the Court 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 mentioned.

The advance publication of a draft opinion is nearly unprecedented for the high court, where leaks of any form are exceedingly uncommon.

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

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

The justices, regulation clerks and other workers of the court docket are "intensely loyal to the institution and devoted to the rule of legislation," Roberts said.

"Court workers have an exemplary and essential custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Courtroom. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that's an affront to the Court and the neighborhood of public servants who work right 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 immediately codify abortion rights by means of legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of known as for the type 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 authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one in every of six conservatives on a courtroom that has moved sharply to the best 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 protect the right 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 docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization would aspect with the state of Mississippi in protection of a legislation that might ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Lower 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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