Supreme Court docket 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 courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination later this 12 months, in Washington, U.S., May 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court opinion that would toss out longstanding abortion rights, but famous that isn't the court's remaining choice.

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 won't succeed," the chief justice said in an announcement. "The work of the Courtroom will not be affected in any way."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is just about unprecedented for the high court docket, where leaks of any variety are exceedingly uncommon.

The court docket shares drafts of opinions internally long before they are issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and essential a part of the Court's confidential deliberative work."

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

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

"Court workers have an exemplary and vital custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief 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 instantly codify abortion rights by means of laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of known as for the type of investigation the Roberts announced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing selections about abortion in the palms 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 court that has moved sharply to the suitable 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 suitable to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

Alito wrote: "We hold that Roe and Casey have to 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 protection of a regulation that would ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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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