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 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 decision later this 12 months, in Washington, U.S., May 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Court docket Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft courtroom opinion that will toss out longstanding abortion rights, but famous that isn't the court's final 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 won't succeed," the chief justice stated in an announcement. "The work of the Courtroom is not going to be affected in any approach."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is nearly unprecedented for the high court docket, the place leaks of any variety are exceedingly rare.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally long earlier than they are issued publicly, Roberts noted, 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, in keeping with Politico, which obtained the opinion.

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

"Courtroom employees have an exemplary and necessary tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Courtroom. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that's an affront to the Court docket and the community of public servants who work right 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 way of laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of 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 selections about abortion in the fingers of states as a substitute of the federal government.

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 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. Those pivotal rulings protect the correct to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that regulations 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 courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Well being Organization would side with the state of Mississippi in defense of a law that would ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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

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