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

Pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court 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 decision later this 12 months, in Washington, U.S., Could 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft courtroom opinion that may toss out longstanding abortion rights, however famous that isn't the courtroom's ultimate 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 will not succeed," the chief justice mentioned in a press release. "The work of the Court won't be affected in any means."

"I've directed the Marshal of the Court docket to launch an investigation into the supply of the leak," Roberts stated.

The advance publication of a draft opinion is nearly unprecedented for the high court, where leaks of any form are exceedingly uncommon.

The court docket shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts famous, 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 accordance with Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, regulation clerks and other workers of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the establishment and dedicated to the rule of regulation," Roberts stated.

"Court docket workers have an exemplary and vital 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 is an affront to the Courtroom and the community 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 now pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights through laws.

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

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one among 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 Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. Those pivotal rulings protect the right to get an abortion before the point of fetal viability and require that laws limiting abortion entry don't pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies's Well being Group would aspect with the state of Mississippi in defense of a regulation that might ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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

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