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 making ready for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice later this 12 months, in Washington, U.S., May 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 might toss out longstanding abortion rights, however famous that is not the court's ultimate choice.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

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

"I've directed the Marshal of the Court 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, the place leaks of any variety are exceedingly uncommon.

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 Court docket's confidential deliberative work."

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

The justices, regulation clerks and other employees of the court are "intensely loyal to the establishment and dedicated to the rule of law," Roberts said.

"Court docket employees have an exemplary and vital custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the belief of the Courtroom. 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 here," he mentioned.

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

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of known as for the sort of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting decisions about abortion in the fingers 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 courtroom that has moved sharply to the precise 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 protect the proper to get an abortion earlier than the point of fetal viability and require that regulations limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies's Well being Organization would side with the state of Mississippi in defense of a regulation that may ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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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