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 after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice later this 12 months, in Washington, U.S., Could 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 may toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that isn't the court docket's ultimate decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

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

"I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak," Roberts stated.

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

The courtroom shares drafts of opinions internally long earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and essential a part of the Court docket'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, regulation clerks and other employees of the court docket are "intensely loyal to the establishment and dedicated to the rule of law," Roberts mentioned.

"Court docket employees have an exemplary and essential 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's an affront to the Court and the group 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 many called for the kind of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting decisions about abortion within the arms of states instead of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, certainly one of six conservatives on a court that has moved sharply to the appropriate 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 right to get an abortion earlier than the point of fetal viability and require that regulations 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 court docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls's Well being Group would aspect with the state of Mississippi in defense of a regulation that will ban almost 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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