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

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outdoors 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 court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this yr, in Washington, U.S., May 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court docket opinion that would toss out longstanding abortion rights, however noted that is not the court docket's closing 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 stated in a press release. "The work of the Court is not going to be affected in any method."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is virtually unprecedented for the high courtroom, where leaks of any variety are exceedingly rare.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally long 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 in this high-profile abortion case was created in February, based on Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, law clerks and other staff of the court are "intensely loyal to the establishment and devoted to the rule of legislation," Roberts stated.

"Court workers have an exemplary and necessary custom 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 docket and the group of public servants who work here," he stated.

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 plenty of called for the form 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 hands of states as a substitute of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, considered one of six conservatives on a court docket that has moved sharply to the fitting 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 Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. These pivotal rulings shield the proper to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion entry do not pose an "undue burden."

Alito wrote: "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled."

The draft of the opinion of the court docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization would facet with the state of Mississippi in protection of a regulation that would 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 selections.

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