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

Pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outdoors the U.S. Supreme Court docket after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution later this year, 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 court opinion that might toss out longstanding abortion rights, however noted that is not the court docket's closing resolution.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was supposed to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed," the chief justice said in a statement. "The work of the Court is not going to be affected in any method."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is just about unprecedented for the excessive court docket, where leaks of any variety are exceedingly uncommon.

The court docket shares drafts of opinions internally long earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and important 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 court are "intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of regulation," Roberts mentioned.

"Courtroom workers have an exemplary and essential custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court docket. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court docket and the community of public servants who work here," he said.

The publication of the draft opinion rocked Washington, triggering waves of shock and fury from Democrats who at the moment are pushing for Congress to right away codify abortion rights by laws.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of called 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 in the hands of states as an alternative of the federal government.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one in all 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 Planned Parenthood v. Casey. These pivotal rulings defend the fitting to get an abortion before the purpose of fetal viability and require that regulations limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

Alito wrote: "We hold that Roe and Casey have to 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 regulation that would ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

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 verify back for updates.