Supreme Courtroom says leaked abortion draft is authentic; 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 getting ready for a majority of the courtroom to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights resolution 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 might toss out longstanding abortion rights, but noted that is not the court docket's remaining 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 said in a statement. "The work of the Court docket is not going to be affected in any way."

"I've 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 high court, the place leaks of any variety are exceedingly uncommon.

The court shares drafts of opinions internally long before they are issued publicly, Roberts noted, calling it "a routine and important a 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 other employees of the courtroom are "intensely loyal to the establishment and devoted to the rule of law," Roberts said.

"Court staff have an exemplary and necessary custom of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the belief of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that belief that's an affront to the Court docket 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 instantly codify abortion rights by legislation.

Republicans decried the leak itself, and plenty of referred to as for the kind of investigation the Roberts introduced late Tuesday morning. The GOP lawmakers who commented on the draft opinion praised it for placing selections about abortion in the palms 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 court docket 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 shield the suitable to get an abortion earlier than the purpose of fetal viability and require that rules 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 courtroom in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Group would side with the state of Mississippi in protection of a law that may 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 choices.

That is breaking information. Please check back for updates.