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

Pro-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 getting 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., Might 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

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

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 press release. "The work of the Court won't be affected in any manner."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is just about unprecedented for the high courtroom, the place leaks of any sort are exceedingly rare.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy before they are issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and essential a part of the Courtroom'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 institution and dedicated to the rule of law," Roberts stated.

"Court employees have an exemplary and important 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 and the community of public servants who work right 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 right away codify abortion rights by way of laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and many called for the sort of investigation the Roberts announced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for putting selections about abortion in the hands of states instead of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one of six conservatives on a court docket that has moved sharply to the proper 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. Those pivotal rulings shield the precise to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that regulations limiting abortion entry 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 courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Well being Group would side with the state of Mississippi in defense of a legislation that might ban almost 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 decisions.

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