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

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest exterior the U.S. Supreme Court docket 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 determination 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 opinion that might toss out longstanding abortion rights, however noted that is not the court docket's last decision.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was meant to undermine the integrity of our operations, it won't succeed," the chief justice stated in an announcement. "The work of the Court docket is not going to be affected in any approach."

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

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

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

"Court docket staff have an exemplary and important tradition 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's an affront to the Court docket and the group of public servants who work 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 immediately codify abortion rights by laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of 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 in the hands of states as a substitute 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 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 shield the appropriate to get an abortion before the purpose of fetal viability and require that regulations limiting abortion access 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 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Well being Organization would aspect with the state of Mississippi in protection of a legislation that would ban nearly 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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