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

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outdoors the U.S. Supreme Courtroom 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 resolution later this yr, 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 might toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that is not the court's remaining resolution.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court docket was supposed to undermine the integrity of our operations, it is not going to succeed," the chief justice mentioned 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 Court docket to launch an investigation into the source of the leak," Roberts said.

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

The courtroom shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and essential a part of the Courtroom's confidential deliberative work."

The draft on this high-profile abortion case was created in February, in response to Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, legislation clerks and other workers of the court docket are "intensely loyal to the establishment and devoted to the rule of regulation," Roberts mentioned.

"Court docket staff have an exemplary and vital tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the belief of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Courtroom 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 actually pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights by way of legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of known as for the type of investigation the Roberts announced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing decisions about abortion within the hands of states instead of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, certainly one of six conservatives on a courtroom 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 protect the fitting to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion entry 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 courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls's Health Group would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a regulation that might ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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

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