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

Pro-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 getting ready for a majority of the court docket to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice 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 docket opinion that might toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that is not the courtroom's closing 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 a statement. "The work of the Court is not going to be affected in any means."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is nearly unprecedented for the excessive court docket, where leaks of any sort are exceedingly rare.

The court docket shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they are issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and essential part of the Court docket's confidential deliberative work."

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

The justices, legislation clerks and different workers of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of legislation," Roberts said.

"Court employees have an exemplary and essential tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the belief of the Court. 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 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 instantly codify abortion rights by laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and lots of referred to as for the sort 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 hands of states instead 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 right 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 Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. Those pivotal rulings protect the precise to get an abortion earlier than 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 Ladies's Well being Organization would facet with the state of Mississippi in defense of a legislation that would ban virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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

That is breaking information. Please check back for updates.