The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft on Roe v. Wade that would roll back decades of abortion rights in the United States.
The statement came the morning after Politician release an extraordinary brief by Judge Samuel Alito in a pending abortion case in which he and other conservative majority justices appeared poised to overturn Roe’s landmark abortion rights cases v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).
A statement from a Supreme Court spokesman confirmed that the leaked document was genuine, but stressed that the Court’s final decision would not be issued until July.
The spokesman stressed that the judges’ final position on the case, which concerns Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, may change.
Supreme Court observers and scholars agree that the leak is unprecedented in modern US history, and could damage Americans’ trust in the court and the judges’ trust in each other.
“To the extent that this betrayal of Court confidences was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed, Chief Justice John Roberts promised in his statement. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”
Roberts said he had ordered the court bailiff to launch an investigation to identify the person who leaked the document. “We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce, both permanent employees and paralegals, intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. The employees of the Court have an exemplary tradition in the Court”.
“This was a singular and egregious violation of that trust, an affront to the Court and to the community of public servants who work here,” Roberts said.
For his part, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is calling for an investigation into the leak, arguing that it was intended to “intimidate” justices into changing their opinions.
“Someone, probably someone within the Court itself, leaked a confidential internal draft to the press, almost certainly in an effort to spark an inappropriate lobbying campaign to influence an outcome. The radical left immediately rallied around the toxic stunt” he said.
“By all indications, this was yet another escalation in the radical left’s ongoing campaign to intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule for the rule of law. Shameful statements by President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader Schumer refuse to uphold judicial independence and the rule of law and instead play into this toxic spectacle. True leaders must uphold the Court’s independence unconditionally,” he said in a statement.
“This illegal action must be investigated and punished in the most complete way possible. The Chief Justice must get to the bottom of the matter and the Justice Department must file criminal charges, if appropriate. The nine judges must tune out the noise of bad faith and feel totally free to do their jobs by following the facts and the law where they lead.”
“I want to make three things clear. First, now that the court is about to strike down Roe, I intend for the Senate to hold a vote on legislation to codify abortion rights into law. Secondly, a vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise: it is as urgent and real as it seems. We will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose, and every American will see which side every senator is on,” said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
