US Supreme Court Orders Probe After Rare Leak of Draft Abortion Ruling

Emmanuel Addeh 

The United States Supreme Court yesterday ordered an investigation into the almost unprecedented leak of a draft ruling on the country’s abortion laws, describing it as a betrayal.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft opinion, noted that it didn’t yet represent a final document.

If formally announced, millions of women across the US could soon lose their legal right to abortion, according to the leaked Supreme Court document, published by Politico, suggesting the country’s top court is poised to overturn the 1973 decision that legalised abortion nationwide.

Striking down the Roe v Wade ruling would mean that individual states would be allowed to ban abortion if they wish. It is expected abortion could then be banned in almost half of US states, the BBC indicated.

The Supreme Court’s justices are expected to issue a ruling in late June or early July on the matter because Mississippi is asking for it to be overturned. The justices heard the case in December.

Thirteen states have already passed the so-called trigger laws that will automatically ban abortion if the law is overruled. A number of others would be likely to pass laws quickly.

Some 36 million women could then lose abortion access, according to research from Planned Parenthood, a healthcare organisation which provides abortions.

But anti-abortion groups welcomed the news, saying if the law is indeed overturned, “the job will be to build consensus for the strongest protections possible for unborn children.”

A statement issued by the court on the matter, however stated that no final decision had been taken on the matter.

“Yesterday, a news organisation published a copy of a draft opinion in a pending case. Justices circulate draft opinions internally as a routine and essential part of the Court’s confidential deliberative work.

“Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.

“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.

“We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce — permanent employees and law clerks alike — intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. 

“Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.

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

The leaked document – labelled “1st Draft” – appears to reflect the majority opinion of the court, and according to Politico was written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated within the court on 10 February.

Its publication on Monday night sparked an immediate outcry from Democrats, as well as protests by both pro-choice and anti-abortion campaigners outside the court in Washington DC.

Leading Democratic politicians Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said jointly that if the report was accurate, the Supreme Court was “poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years”.

 At the White House, President Joe Biden called on voters to elect more abortion rights supporters to Congress so that lawmakers can codify the principles of Roe into federal law even if the justices reverse the decision.

Speaking with reporters, Biden said the potential ruling would undermine the right to privacy more broadly than just abortion, endangering a series of rights that Americans have come to expect.

 “If this decision holds, it’s really quite a radical decision,” he said. “It basically says all the decisions related to your private life, who you marry, whether or not you decide to conceive a child or not, whether or not you can have an abortion, a range of other decisions. All of those could now be in question,” he said.

While the draft opinion was not final and may be changed before the court issues its decision within the next month or so, its publication made clear that a bedrock of American law for the last half-century was on the verge of being reversed. 

The disclosure of the opinion to Politico was unprecedented in such a major case in modern times and threw the Supreme Court into turmoil as it faced a head-spinning breach of its traditional secrecy. 

The court has largely been immune to the sort of leaks that have been common in other major institutions.