Supreme Courtroom says leaked abortion draft is authentic; Roberts orders investigation into leak

Professional-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outdoors the U.S. Supreme Courtroom 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 determination later this yr, 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 may toss out longstanding abortion rights, however famous that isn't the court docket's ultimate choice.

Roberts ordered an investigation into the leaker.

"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court docket was meant to undermine the integrity of our operations, it won't succeed," the chief justice said in a press release. "The work of the Court is not going to be affected in any approach."

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

The advance publication of a draft opinion is virtually unprecedented for the high courtroom, where leaks of any sort are exceedingly uncommon.

The courtroom shares drafts of opinions internally lengthy earlier than they're issued publicly, Roberts famous, calling it "a routine and important a part of the Courtroom's confidential deliberative work."

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

The justices, law clerks and other staff of the court docket are "intensely loyal to the institution and devoted to the rule of law," Roberts said.

"Courtroom staff 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 belief that is an affront to the Court and the group of public servants who work right here," he stated.

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 means of 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 selections about abortion in the palms of states as a substitute of the federal authorities.

The 98-page draft opinion was penned by Justice Samuel Alito, one in every of six conservatives on a court docket that has moved sharply to the precise 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 defend the fitting to get an abortion before the purpose of fetal viability and require that rules limiting abortion access do not pose an "undue burden."

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

The draft of the opinion of the court docket in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Well being Organization would facet with the state of Mississippi in defense of a law that might ban almost all abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.

Decrease federal courts had blocked the law on the grounds that it violates the protections established by the Roe and Casey selections.

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