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

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court docket after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito getting ready for a majority of the courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights determination later this yr, in Washington, U.S., Might 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Courtroom 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 courtroom's ultimate resolution.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court docket was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed," the chief justice said in a statement. "The work of the Court will not be affected in any manner."

"I have 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 just about unprecedented for the excessive courtroom, the place 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 part of the Court docket's confidential deliberative work."

The draft in this high-profile abortion case was created in February, in keeping with Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, law clerks and different workers of the court are "intensely loyal to the establishment and dedicated to the rule of law," Roberts said.

"Court workers have an exemplary and essential tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the belief of the Courtroom. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that's an affront to the Court docket and the neighborhood 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 actually pushing for Congress to right away codify abortion rights by way of legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of referred to as for the sort of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting selections about abortion in the arms of states as an alternative of the federal authorities.

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 appropriate 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 Planned Parenthood v. Casey. These pivotal rulings defend the right to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion access don't pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies's Health Organization would side with the state of Mississippi in defense of a regulation that will ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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

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