The five-vote majority needed in the Supreme Court to overturn two key precedents on abortion rights remains on track following the leak of a draft majority opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito, according to a report.
The leaked draft, dated Feb. 10, was first published last week and has most likely been changed in the months since it was written, though three conservative sources with information about the high court said the majority of votes supporting the decision remain unchanged, according to the Washington Post.
Justices who are slated to join Alito’s majority opinion overturning the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade and the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey include Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
PRO-ABORTION PROTESTERS GATHER AT THE HOMES OF KAVANAUGH AND ROBERTS
Following the publication of the leaked draft on May 2, a separate leak was published shortly after by CNN suggesting Chief Justice John Roberts was not in favor of completely overturning the landmark 1973 ruling, also seen in his arguments over Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last fall when he sought a way to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of gestation without rejecting the Roe framework.
Roberts, who at times has sided with the three Democratic-appointed minority justices, still appears to oppose completely overhauling Roe and Casey and was attempting to persuade Barrett and Kavanaugh to favor a more incremental approach toward handling abortion restrictions.
Last week, the chief justice confirmed the leak’s authenticity in a statement from the high court. Days later, he called the leak “absolutely appalling” in his first public appearance since the leak at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference in Atlanta.
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“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” Roberts said in his written statement after the Politico report, also calling for an investigation into the leak. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”
The court’s three Democratic-appointed justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer, are widely expected to oppose the ruling in Dobbs, though the leaked draft did not include any dissenting comments.
