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 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., May 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 would toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that isn't the court's closing decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

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

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is virtually unprecedented for the excessive court, where leaks of any kind are exceedingly uncommon.

The court docket shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy before they're issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and essential part of the Court docket'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, regulation clerks and different staff of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the institution and devoted to the rule of law," Roberts said.

"Court docket staff have an exemplary and important custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that is an affront to the Courtroom and the neighborhood of public servants who work right 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 right away codify abortion rights through laws.

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

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one 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 Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. These pivotal rulings shield the best to get an abortion before the purpose of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion access don't pose an "undue burden."

Alito wrote: "We hold that Roe and Casey must 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 protection of a law that would ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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

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