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

Pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court docket after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this 12 months, 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 will toss out longstanding abortion rights, however 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 Courtroom was supposed to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed," the chief justice mentioned in a statement. "The work of the Courtroom will not be affected in any method."

"I have directed the Marshal of the Courtroom to launch an investigation into the source of the leak," Roberts mentioned.

The advance publication of a draft opinion is just about unprecedented for the high courtroom, the place leaks of any kind are exceedingly rare.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy before they're issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and essential part of the Court'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, law clerks and other staff 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 essential tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the belief of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that's an affront to the Court docket and the neighborhood 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 actually pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights through laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of referred to as for the kind of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting selections about abortion within the arms of states as an alternative of the federal authorities.

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 appropriate 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. These pivotal rulings defend the right to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion entry do not 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 Ladies's Well being Organization would facet with the state of Mississippi in defense of a law that would 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 selections.

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