Senate Republicans are strategizing how to appear united on abortion rights after the leak of a Supreme Court opinion signaling the high court is on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade. 111

A three-page memo circulated by the National Republican Senatorial Committee on Tuesday offers talking points, stressing members should express compassion and calmness in order to contrast with Democrats, who they expect to be “angry, strident, rigid, science deniers on the issue of abortion,” in the months leading up to the midterm elections. The document also lays out talking points for Senate Republicans to elevate anti-abortion talking points, with sample statements candidates can use in their advertisements and on the campaign trail.

“Be the compassionate, consensus-builder on abortion policy,” the memo states. “While people have many different views on abortion policy, Americans are compassionate people who want to welcome every new baby into the world.”

The memo comes less than a day after Politico reported a draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 case in which the ruling legalized abortions nationwide. The leak prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to order an investigation by the Marshal of the Court. A final decision is expected in the coming weeks or months.

While Democrats, including President Joe Biden, are sounding the alarm about a “radical” Supreme Court and what it will do next, the GOP campaign strategy encourages Republicans to denounce Democratic challengers for “extreme views” that are “outside the mainstream of most Americans,” including late-term abortions. Those views, among others, are not representative of most voters in the country.

Read the full report here.

An anti-abortion activist, who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community and a Democrat, spoke with the Washington Examiner outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are taking aim at one another over their respective parties’ response to the leaked draft, writes Juliegrace Brufke, with the lawmakers accusing each other of having a misdirected focus on the matter.

Top Republicans including McConnell have argued that the unprecedented leak is problematic and poses problems to the separation of the branches of government, arguing that Democrats have ceased on the report in an attempt to pressure justices to rethink their decisions while Democrats allege Republicans are trying to divert attention away from the abortion policy.

When pressed on whether his role in confirming conservative judges to the Supreme Court was responsible for the expected upcoming ruling, the Kentucky Republican said: “I think the story today is an effort by someone on the inside to discredit the institution of the Senate, which continues a pattern that we’ve observed over the last couple of years.”

Schumer in turn slammed McConnell’s response, vowing to bring legislation to the floor in an attempt to codify access to abortions.

“Every time it was brought up substantively about Roe v Wade. All he did is talk about the leaks. Republicans are spending all their focus on the leak because they don’t want to focus on Roe v. Wade,” Schumer said.

“… They do not want to focus on Roe. I heard that Mitch McConnell was asked if you’re proud that you got roe repealed and he wouldn’t even answer yes or no. They spent a decade, two decades trying to repeal Roe and now they won’t own up to it. They’re like the dog that caught the bus. They know they’re on the wrong side of history.”

Meanwhile, demonstrators have again descended on the court to protest the potential overturning of Roe v Wade. Follow the Washington Examiner’s Facebook live stream here.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show he was “flabbergasted” by the news about the Court potentially overturning Roe v. Wade.

“I was flabbergasted. It really is unprecedented. Our institutions have become increasingly politicized, but I never imagined this could happen to the Supreme Court, which has always protected its confidentiality, and for someone to let this out in order to influence the final decision is really beyond the pale.”

Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama released a statement criticizing the potential decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

“The consequences of this decision would be a blow not just to women, but to all of us who believe that in a free society, there are limits to how much the government can encroach on our personal lives,” they wrote.

While Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation by the Marshal of the Court, legal experts are skeptical of any criminal wrongdoing surrounding the leak, writes Kaelan Deese.

One of the major stopgaps that could prevent a criminal referral to the DOJ is that Supreme Court opinion is not classified, a facet that usually serves as the root of leak investigations, according to Omar Ochoa, an attorney based in Edinburg, Texas.

“There are certain agencies where disclosure of confidential information is actually a crime, like national security information, but I’m not aware of anything like that in the Supreme Court in terms of disclosing confidential information,” Ochoa told the Washington Examiner.

Read the full report here.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn’t want to talk about whether he “takes personal credit” for the apparent end of “abortion rights” in the country, instead turning reporters’ attention to the fact that institutions are being undermined.

“I think the story today is an effort by someone on the inside to discredit the institution of the Senate,” McConnell said, “which continues a pattern that we’ve observed over the last couple of years.”

The minority leader went on to remind the room that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took to the steps of the Supreme Court to call out Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch by name in 2020.

McConnell also said efforts to pack the court and introduce term limits have threatened the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

Despite calls from Democrats that the leaked opinion should spur voters to turn out in November, McConnell insisted that the real story is the corrosion of the Senate and Supreme Court from the inside.

“What’s unique about today, is this is the first time we’ve had somebody on the inside try to attack the institution,” he said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy compared the Supreme Court’s expected decision to overturn Roe v. Wade to waging war on women.

The governor slammed the leaked decision as something the country has to resist at all costs.

“We all ought to be really, really concerned,” Murphy said. “War has been declared on the American woman. War has been made on the sacrosanct decision a woman makes, only with her doctor.”

“There’s no question [if] this goes through, the American woman has been weakened,” he continued. “We cannot let that stand as a nation. We must do everything we can to write this wrong.”

Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is furious the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Taking to Twitter Monday evening, Clinton blasted the decision as “not surprising. But still outrageous.”

“This decision is a direct assault on the dignity, rights, & lives of women,” Clinton wrote. “It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal. What an utter disgrace.”

Luis M. Alvarez/AP

Democrats’ rush to promise they will codify abortion proves the point conservatives have been trying to make, Hugo Gurdon writes.

“Pivoting instantly to the possibility that this huge issue might dynamite the Democrats out of their current funk, [Biden] said the Alito draft should prompt midterm voters to elect senators and representatives who supported legal abortion. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, did the same when he said the Senate would move to codify abortion rights legislatively.”

Read the full column here.

(Graeme Jennings / Washington Examiner)

The rhetoric around what will happen if the Supreme Court overturns Roe is disingenous, Zachary Faria writes.

“If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe — conservatives shouldn’t take a victory lap until it reaches the finish line — then abortion policy will return to the states. States that want to ban it can ban it, states that want to restrict it after a certain threshold, such as 12 weeks, can do so, and states that want to embrace abortion fanaticism can still allow it with no restrictions.”

Read the full column here.

Patrick Semansky/AP

Vice President Kamala Harris hit back at anyone celebrating the idea a decadeslong goal for Republicans and anti-abortion activists could come to fruition, Katherine Doyle writes.

“’What is clear is that opponents of Roe want to punish women and take away their rights to make decisions about their own bodies,’ Harris argued in a statement on Tuesday. She said Republican legislators are ‘weaponizing’ the law against women.”

Read the full report here.

Erin Schaff/AP

Monday night’s leak was out of the justices’ hands, but the legitimacy of their institution could still be in peril, Kaelan Deese writes.

“A major unprecedented leak for the case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was published by Politico Monday evening and raised alarm among legal experts over public confidence in the Supreme Court as an institution and its ability to conduct its work.”

Read the full report here.

While some Democrats are fighting about the filibuster, the White House is trying to remind them that there are more pressing problems when it comes to trying to codify Roe v. Wade, such as getting the votes, Christian Datoc writes.

Luis M. Alvarez/AP

“White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeatedly told reporters Tuesday that, despite President Joe Biden’s calls for legislation enshrining abortion access, Democrats currently don’t have the votes to pass such a bill in the Senate.”

Read the full report here.

Republicans’ decadeslong goal of overturning Roe v. Wade and gutting abortion access isn’t enough for them, according to Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).

“The Republicans won’t stop with banning abortion,” Swalwell tweeted. “They want to ban interracial marriage.”

Swalwell’s claim, building on President Joe Biden’s rhetoric earlier in the day, was part of an effort to encourage people to turn out and vote.

Biden told a gaggle of reporters that if Supreme Court overturns Roe, other “fundamental rights,” such as gay marriage, will be the next to fall.

The president also took the opportunity to say that voters concerned about losing access to abortion should respond by voting for “pro-choice lawmakers.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said it was “utterly stunning” that someone leaked Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion to the press.

While the court has seen leaks in the past, they have been rare and never on the scale of Monday’s full draft opinion appearing online.

Cruz, a former clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, called the leak the most “egregious breach of trust at the Supreme Court that has ever happened.”

According to Cruz, that breach was “presumably, some left-wing law clerk angry at the direction the court this going.”

There is no evidence about who leaked the opinion.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was surprised by the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting justices are prepared to overturn Roe, Juliegrace Brufke writes.

“If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office,” she said Tuesday. “Obviously, we won’t know each Justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case.”

Read the full report here.

The essential detriment of Roe and the key to Justice Samuel Alito’s powerful argument is summed up in a few simple words, Quinn Hillyer writes.

“In both the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, the majority of justices essentially made up constitutional provisions from thin air. As Alito wrote, ‘The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.’”

Read the full column here.

Seeing Roe overturned would be a positive thing in some lawmakers’ eyes, but the possibility it will happen has been tainted by the way the country found out, Heather Hamilton writes.

“Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called the Supreme Court leak suggesting the likelihood that Roe v. Wade will be overturned ‘bittersweet.'”

Read the full report here.

The Senate could codify Roe v. Wade into law tomorrow if it weren’t for at least two senators who say they aren’t willing to overhaul the filibuster to do so.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) Tuesday for refusing to “act on the filibuster.”

Tearing into “GOP & Dem obstructionists,” Ocasio-Cortez said Sinema should “take a seat talking about ‘women’s access to health care'” until she’s prepared to end the filibuster.

Earlier in the day, Sinema released a statement criticizing the court’s expected decision to overturn Roe, saying it “endangers the health and wellbeing of women in Arizona and across America.”

Pro-life people aren’t the only ones arguing Roe v. Wade stands on shaky legal ground, Timothy P. Carney writes.

“Abortion has thus been protected from democracy by a ruling that everyone knows is garbage, motivated reasoning . I’ve collected here many pro-choice legal scholars saying how bad Roe was.

Subject to scrutiny, Roe falls, and abortion defenders need to convince politicians to vote in order to strip unborn babies of any legal protections.”

Read the full column here.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) will continue to thwart Democratic proposals to end the filibuster.

On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) suggested it was time to end the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Dobbs opinion leak. However, Manchin indicated Tuesday that the filibuster serves as a check on the same power that preserves abortion rights.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) joined Manchin in refusing to alter the Senate rule on Tuesday.

Both senators voted against an effort in January to weaken the filibuster.

Top Senate leaders want to get to the bottom of who leaked the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on Monday night, Juliegrace Brufke writes.

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is calling for an investigation into the leak of a Supreme Court ruling indicating the high court plans to nullify Roe v. Wade, arguing the move was intended to “bully” judges into changing their positions.”

Read the full report here.

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, as it is widely expected to do after Monday’s leak, it will undermine several other policies, including same-sex marriage, President Joe Biden said.

“Biden, a Catholic, has previously said that he is personally anti-abortion but respects a woman’s right to have an abortion, and his comments marked the first time he has said the word “abortion” since being sworn in as president,” Christian Datoc writes.

Read the full report here.

There isn’t any tension between the traditional religious teachings about life and the legal conclusions of Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

The president told reporters that he thought codifying Roe “makes a lot of sense” and said he didn’t see any religious objections.

“Roe says what all basic historic mainstream religions have concluded, that the existence of a human life and being is a question,” he said. “Is it at the moment of conception? Is it six months? Is it six weeks?”

The United States’s political landscape will look very different if the court overturns Roe, Cameron Arcand writes.

“Now, young pro-lifers need to start gearing up. Many of their peers, especially on college campuses, have strong feelings about protecting access to abortion, which could quickly turn into hostile behavior toward dissidents.”

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts confirmed the document that was leaked on Monday evening is “authentic” and ordered the marshal of the court to begin an investigation into the leak’s source.

Read the full report here.

The Senate will vote to codify abortion rights in the wake of a draft Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.

“I want to make three things clear. First, now that the court is poised to strike down Roe, it is my intention for the Senate to hold a vote on legislation to codify the right to an abortion in law,” he said from the floor Tuesday morning.

Read the full report here.

Not everyone who supports abortion access thinks that laws about it should be determined nationally, Christopher Hutton writes.

“Anti-abortion rights activist and former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson argued that abortion should be decided on a state-by-state basis, a departure from the view held by many people associated with Planned Parenthood.”

Read the full report here.

If you weren’t checking your phone last night, here’s what happened outside the court moments after the draft leaked.

States looking to shore up abortion access are running to some extreme positions, Mary Vought writes.

The Maryland legislature recently overrode a veto of the Abortion Care Access Act, pumping $3.5 million annually into a new Abortion Clinical Care Training Program.

“Lawmakers just decided to use taxpayer dollars to increase the number of abortionists in the state, creating a culture of death rather than a culture of life.”

Read the full piece here

If the court does vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said it would be “completely inconsistent” with what Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh said in their confirmation hearings and in meetings with her.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blasted the leak as an “attack on the independence” of the court and Democratic leaders’ comments as “disgraceful”

“Real leaders should defend the Court’s independence unconditionally,” McConnell wrote in a statement.

If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade, it won’t eliminate all access to abortion; it will return rulemaking power to the states, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said on Twitter.

With that in mind, he asked Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey why they are so upset about the court saying it will change the law if their state has no plans to change its own laws.

After protesting late into the evening Monday, protesters who support abortion rights and those who are critical of them are back Tuesday morning.

U.S. Capitol Police are in the crowd, Washington Examiner reporter Cami Mondeaux reports from the court.

President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court possibly overturning Roe v. Wade should motivate “voters to elect pro-choice officials” in the midterm elections.

Biden and his administration have supported Roe and have been preparing for the court to overturn it, Christian Datoc writes.

Read the full report on the president’s comments here.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Monday night’s Supreme Court leak should push the Senate to take a firm stand on making Roe v. Wade law.

The halls of the Supreme Court are usually as tight as a ship. Cameras don’t make it into the courtroom, audio recordings of arguments were only released due to a global pandemic, and opinions rarely see the light of day before the court releases them.

Monday evenings leak was an aberration, but not the first time such a leak has occurred. And, interestingly, not the first time a leak involving Roe has happened.

It seems everyone has something to say about the Supreme Court leak. Here are some things to consider, Conn Carroll writes.

We really have no idea how close this draft will be to the final published decision. We should remember that Chief Justice John Roberts initially voted with conservatives to overturn the Affordable Care Act in NFIB v. Sebelius. In fact, what became the minority opinion was first drafted as the majority opinion. Roberts only caved to political pressure and switched his vote in May 2012. It is entirely possible a justice who voted with conservatives in January will get cold feet and switch his or her vote.

Sen. Mitt Romney chimed in on Twitter to say he will be pleased if the court overturns Roe but is upset the Supreme Court was undermined.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has joined calls from conservatives who say the FBI should get involved in investigating the recent leak, writes Breaking News Reporter Christopher Hutton.

“It’s incumbent upon him to bring in every law clerk before him or the FBI. ‘Give me your phone. We want all your accounts. We’ve got to do our own — look at every device you’ve ever used and find out who did this,'” Ingraham said.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is leading calls to expand the Supreme Court after the draft opinion leaked.

Her fellow Squad member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, warns that gay marriage will be next.

Anna Johnson/AP

For the first time in modern history, a draft decision from the Supreme Court has leaked while a case is still pending, writes Tiana Lowe.

“Let’s ignore the substance of the alleged decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito. The real controversy is the leak itself, as egregious an attempt to terrorize justices into stealing a court decision as the Jan. 6 riots were an attempt to terrorize congressmen into stealing a presidency.”

If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade this year, as a leaked document suggests it is prepared to do, access to abortion won’t shut down overnight. However, the responsibility for allowing or denying access will fall squarely on the shoulders of the states.

Moving quickly in response to reports of the leak, governors around the country broadcast their position on abortion access, ensuring supporters of the procedure that they would fight to allow abortions to continue.

While states like Texas, Florida, and Arizona are engaging in the unwelcome intrusion of government into deeply personal and religious decisions, Colorado remains a refuge where individual rights are respected and where any person has the ability to live, work, thrive, and raise a family on their own terms,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

Read the full report here.

If this leak is true, this decision is an enormous win for the pro-life and conservative movements and should be celebrated as such. But it is also an unprecedented violation of the Supreme Court’s notorious privacy — one that will have massive ramifications inside and outside the court.

Read more from Kaylee McGee White here.

Hundreds stood along barricades outside the Supreme Court Monday night to protest after a leaked document suggested the court is preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Washington Examiner reporters were on the scene to talk with protesters, getting a sense of what coming months could look like until the court releases a final opinion.

Protesters were quick to make their way to the court, telling reporters they made their way downtown as soon as they began to see headlines.

“So basically what happened was we got the Politico headline, and 30 minutes later, we were at the Supreme Court building,” 19-year-old Abigail Chase, a student at American University in Washington, told the Washington Examiner.

Read the full report here.

The Supreme Court is undoing Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that led to the creation of a constitutional right to abortion, according to a leaked draft majority opinion.

A Washington Examiner reporter saw barricades that had been set up outside the Supreme Court on Monday evening. A small gathering of a couple of dozen people began to gather after the news broke, followed by as many as 400-500 people just after 11 p.m. Monday.

Read the full report here.