Supreme Court says leaked abortion draft is genuine; 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 determination later this 12 months, in Washington, U.S., Could 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Court docket Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court opinion that will toss out longstanding abortion rights, but famous that is not the court'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 an announcement. "The work of the Court is not going to be affected in any manner."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is virtually unprecedented for the high court docket, the place leaks of any kind are exceedingly rare.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally long earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and essential a part of the Court'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, regulation clerks and different staff of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the establishment and devoted to the rule of law," Roberts stated.

"Court docket workers have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Courtroom 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 are now pushing for Congress to right away codify abortion rights by way of laws.

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 selections about abortion within the hands of states instead of the federal government.

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 fitting 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. Those pivotal rulings shield the appropriate to get an abortion earlier than the point of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion access don't pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Well being Group would aspect with the state of Mississippi in protection of a legislation that may ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Lower federal courts had blocked the legislation on the grounds that it violates the protections established by the Roe and Casey selections.

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