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

Professional-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 getting ready for a majority of the court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination later this yr, in Washington, U.S., Might 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 will toss out longstanding abortion rights, however noted that isn't the court's ultimate determination.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Court docket staff have an exemplary and vital tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the belief of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust 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 actually pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights by means of legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and many known as for the sort of investigation the Roberts announced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing decisions about abortion in the palms of states as a substitute of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one among six conservatives on a court docket 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. Those pivotal rulings shield the suitable to get an abortion earlier than the point 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 Well being Group would facet with the state of Mississippi in defense of a law that might ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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

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