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

Professional-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 making ready for a majority of the courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution 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 courtroom opinion that would toss out longstanding abortion rights, however famous that isn't the court docket's last 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 Court docket won't be affected in any means."

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

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

The courtroom shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they are issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and important 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, legislation clerks and different staff of the court docket are "intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of regulation," Roberts said.

"Court docket employees have an exemplary and important custom 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 is an affront to the Court and the group of public servants who work right here," he said.

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 way of legislation.

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 placing selections about abortion in the hands 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 courtroom that has moved sharply to the fitting 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 defend the suitable to get an abortion earlier than the point of fetal viability and require that rules 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 court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization would side with the state of Mississippi in defense of a legislation that might ban virtually 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 choices.

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