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 Courtroom after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice later this year, in Washington, U.S., May 3, 2022. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft courtroom opinion that might toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that isn't the court docket's remaining choice.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it is not going to succeed," the chief justice stated in a press release. "The work of the Court is not going to be affected in any way."

"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 virtually unprecedented for the excessive courtroom, the place leaks of any type are exceedingly rare.

The court 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 in this high-profile abortion case was created in February, based on Politico, which obtained the opinion.

The justices, legislation clerks and other workers of the court are "intensely loyal to the institution and devoted to the rule of law," Roberts stated.

"Court staff have an exemplary and important custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial course of and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that is an affront to the Court docket and the group 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 instantly codify abortion rights by laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of known as 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 within the fingers of states as a substitute of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, certainly one of six conservatives on a court docket that has moved sharply to the suitable within 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. Those pivotal rulings protect the proper to get an abortion before the purpose of fetal viability and require that regulations limiting abortion access don't 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 Group would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a legislation that may 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 selections.

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