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 after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito making ready for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution later this yr, in Washington, U.S., Might 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Court docket Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft court opinion that may toss out longstanding abortion rights, but famous that is not the court docket's last choice.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Courtroom 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 manner."

"I have directed the Marshal of the Court 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 court docket, the place leaks of any sort are exceedingly uncommon.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally long earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and important a part of the Court docket's confidential deliberative work."

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

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

"Courtroom staff have an exemplary and necessary tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of 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 community 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 right away codify abortion rights by means of legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and many known as for the sort of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing selections about abortion within the arms of states instead 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 best 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 proper to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

Alito wrote: "We maintain that Roe and Casey should be overruled."

The draft of the opinion of the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls's Health Group would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a legislation that may ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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

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