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

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Courtroom 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 choice later this year, 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 courtroom opinion that would toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that is not the court docket's ultimate resolution.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was meant to undermine the integrity of our operations, it is not going to succeed," the chief justice stated in a press release. "The work of the Courtroom is not going to be affected in any means."

"I've directed the Marshal of the Court docket 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 excessive courtroom, where leaks of any sort are exceedingly rare.

The court docket shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy before they are 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, based on Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, law clerks and other staff of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of regulation," Roberts mentioned.

"Court docket employees have an exemplary and important custom 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 is an affront to the Court docket and the group of public servants who work here," he stated.

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 through legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of referred to as for the form of investigation the Roberts announced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting decisions about abortion within the hands 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 appropriate 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. Those pivotal rulings shield the precise to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion access don't pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls's Health Organization would facet with the state of Mississippi in protection of a regulation that will 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 decisions.

That is breaking news. Please check back for updates.