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

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest exterior the U.S. Supreme Courtroom after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito getting ready for a majority of the courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this 12 months, 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 opinion that might toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that is not the court docket's remaining decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it is not going to succeed," the chief justice said in an announcement. "The work of the Courtroom will not be affected in any manner."

"I've directed the Marshal of the Court docket to launch an investigation into the source 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 type are exceedingly rare.

The courtroom shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and important a part of the Court's confidential deliberative work."

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

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

"Court docket employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that is an affront to the Court 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 at the moment are pushing for Congress to instantly codify abortion rights by way of legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of referred to as for the form of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing choices about abortion within the fingers of states as a substitute of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one in all six conservatives on a court that has moved sharply to the precise 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 protect the best to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies's Well being Group would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a regulation that would ban nearly 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.

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