Batten down the hatches... https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinio... https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000180-874f-dd36-a38c-c74f98520000 Who Leaked The Supreme Court Opinion? https://summit.news/2022/05/03/who-leaked-the-supreme-court-opinion/ https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/02/leaked-supreme-court-opinion-o... After a draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, speculation turned to who was responsible, with calls for them to be arrested. The majority of the court has decided to vote 5-4 to overturn federal constitutional protection of abortion rights, with Justice Samuel Alito writing, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” in addition to asserting, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.” In an unprecedented move, the opinion was leaked to Politico, presumably in an attempt to create massive social unrest that would lead to one or more of the justices being intimidated into changing their mind. “But it is not a binding decision of the court unless at least five justices sign it, and this looks like a transparent and unprecedented betrayal by one of the 45 or so people with access to a draft Supreme Court opinion to prevent this decision from becoming law by scaring off moderate justices and attempting to whip the political left into a frenzy,” reports Breitbart. Experts say the Supreme Court will lose the trust of a generation of Americans if the decision is walked back due to political pressure, but that didn’t stop whichever irate leftist leaked the document metaphorically pulling the pin on the grenade in an attempt to interfere in democracy. “The American people’s belief in the rule of law would be shaken if they lost respect for this Court as an institution that decides important cases based on principle, not ‘social and political pressures’,” states the leaked document itself. “But we cannot exceed the scope of our authority under the Constitution, and we cannot allow our decisions to be affected by the extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work,” Alito responds. Leaking a draft SCOTUS ruling is worse than January 6th. The Court was the one institution where conservatives and liberals lived in peace and trust. You disagreed but the trust was sacred. This completely destroys the Court’s inner workings. Totally in shock right now. — Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 3, 2022 The only people with access to the original document were the nine justices and their 36 law clerks, meaning it’s almost certain that one of the 36 law clerks leaked the document. When you consider that each justice has four clerks working for them, that probably narrows it down to one of 16 clerks working for the four Democrat-appointed justices. “The fact that some are praising this leak shows how utterly craven we have become in our politics,” tweeted attorney Jonathan Turley. “There appears no ethical rule or institutional interest that can withstand this age of rage.” The fact that some are praising this leak shows how utterly craven we have become in our politics. There appears no ethical rule or institutional interest that can withstand this age of rage. — Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 3, 2022 Other respondents highlighted how the leak is designed to intimidate the justices, via sparking potential mass civil unrest, into changing their mind. The perpetrator, who is already being lionized as a hero by the left, should face immediate arrest. Interference in a Supreme Court decision is a blow to democracy - like, say, stopping an electoral vote The conspirators must be rounded up and arrested and placed next to the J6 detainees — Jack Posobiec ☦️ (@JackPosobiec) May 3, 2022 Probably the greatest violation of unwritten "norms" in the history of the Supreme Court. And I absolutely guarantee you the leaker spent years railing against President Trump's undermining of norms. https://t.co/XSa9LaGb66 — Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) May 3, 2022 This is why they leaked: "Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading...The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months." (Politico) https://t.co/9k0JfLfYZd — Andrew "Leaked Majority Opinion" Kolvet (@AndrewKsay) May 3, 2022 Democrats are now expected to launch an attempt at court packing before they lose Congress in November, although the 5-4 decision should be rubber stamped before then. The leaking of the opinion is brazenly an attempt to subvert that process, create more chaos and violence in America, and derail the constitutional functioning of the Supreme Court. But that won’t matter at all to leftists, who think their moral right to kill babies supersedes all other concerns. 'Betrayal': Supreme Court Slams Leaked Roe Opinion, Says Does Not Represent "Final Decision" The Supreme Court issued a rare rebuttal to Monday's leaked Politico report on a draft opinion overturning abortion rights in the US. Yesterday, a news organization 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. Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Jr., provided the following statement: 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. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said on Tuesday that the leaked draft ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe was "completely inconsistent" with what Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh told her in private during confirmation hearings when they were Supreme Court nominees. "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," said Collins. "Obviously, we won’t know each Justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case." Collins defended her vote for Kavanaugh in 2018, stating that she didn't believe he would vote to overturn Roe. "I do not believe Brett Kavanaugh will overturn Roe v. Wade," she said at the time. "He noted that Roe had been reaffirmed 19 years later by Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. And that it was precedent on precedent. He said it should be extremely rare that it should be overturned." Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says yesterday's leaked report is authentic. Protests erupted outside the US Supreme Court overnight after a draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked to Politico. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP Barriers were erected outside the courthouse as hundreds gathered outside to protest the news, the Washington Post reports. A smaller group of pro-life protesters also showed up, chanting "Pro-choice, that’s a lie. Babies never choose to die," while the larger group of pro-abortion protesters shouted "When abortion rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!" Breaking: Protests are beginning to form outside the Supreme Court. This is just the beginning. #GOPHandmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/8OYnmRxZyN — MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) May 3, 2022 A couple hundred people, most in their 20s and 30s, are now outside SCOTUS. There’s still not yet any organized protest or chanting, just folks standing around talking. Guy just whipped out a can of White Claw. pic.twitter.com/PCrXisy0Ys — Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) May 3, 2022 Really rich hearing the Left trot out this old chant after the past 2 years of them cheering on vaccine mandates. pic.twitter.com/6yhay9YWaw — The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 3, 2022 A scuffle broke out shortly after midnight, as several 'masked protesters' tried to force the pro-life protesters to clear out. Neither group budged according to the report. 2nd clip from the scuffle, looks like someone in a suit gets clocked. pic.twitter.com/BATtQmE7Ms — Doge (@IntelDoge) May 3, 2022 "The first line in the draft is that this is a moral issue. If it’s a moral issue, you shouldn’t be depriving us of our choice," said Annie McDonnell, a student at George Washington University. President Joe Biden responded to the report with a statement he undoubtedly had zero involvement crafting, saying: "We do not know whether this draft is genuine, or whether it reflects the final decision of the Court." The statement adds that Roe is based on a "long line of precedent recognizing ‘the Fourteenth Amendments concept of personal liberty... against government interference with intensely personal decisions," adding that he believes a woman's right to choose is 'fundamental,' and that Roe has been the 'law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law' demand that it not be overturned." Biden then said that the White House's "Gender Policy Council" has prepared options to respond to "the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Set To Overturn Roe v Wade, Leaked Draft Opinion Shows A leaked draft of a US Supreme Court decision reveals that the majority of the court has decided to overturn Roe v. Wade by a vote of 5-4, according to Politico, which calls it a "full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right." "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the draft which was circulated inside the court before someone leaked it to the news outlet. "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled." “No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending. The unprecedented revelation is bound to intensify the debate over what was already the most controversial case on the docket this term.” https://t.co/2os0uJWyUr — Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) May 3, 2022 Politico highlighted these 10 passages from the draft opinion: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision....” “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” “In the years prior to [Roe v. Wade], about a third of the States had liberalized their laws, but Roe abruptly ended that political process. It imposed the same highly restrictive regime on the entire Nation, and it effectively struck down the abortion laws of every single State. … [I]t represented the ‘exercise of raw judicial power’… and it sparked a national controversy that has embittered our political culture for a half-century.” “The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.” “In some States, voters may believe that the abortion right should be more even more [sic] extensive than the right Casey and Roe recognized. Voters in other States may wish to impose tight restrictions based on their belief that abortion destroys an ‘unborn human being.’ ... Our nation’s historical understanding of ordered liberty does not prevent the people’s elected representatives from deciding how abortion should be regulated.” “We have long recognized, however, that stare decisis is ‘not an inexorable command,’ and it ‘is at its weakest when we interpret the Constitution.’ It has been said that it is sometimes more important that an issue ‘be settled than that it be settled right.’ But when it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution — the ‘great charter of our liberties,’ which was meant ‘to endure through a long lapse of ages,’ we place a high value on having the matter ‘settled right.’” “On many other occasions, this Court has overruled important constitutional decisions. … Without these decisions, American constitutional law as we know it would be unrecognizable, and this would be a different country.” ”Casey described itself as calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side. … The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who dissented in any respect from Roe. … Together, Roe and Casey represent an error that cannot be allowed to stand.” “Roe certainly did not succeed in ending division on the issue of abortion. On the contrary, Roe ‘inflamed’ a national issue that has remained bitterly divisive for the past half-century....This Court’s inability to end debate on the issue should not have been surprising. This Court cannot bring about the permanent resolution of a rancorous national controversy simply by dictating a settlement and telling the people to move on. Whatever influence the Court may have on public attitudes must stem from the strength of our opinions, not an attempt to exercise ‘raw judicial power.’” “We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today’s decision overruling Roe and Casey. And even if we could foresee what will happen, we would have no authority to let that knowledge influence our decision. We can only do our job, which is to interpret the law, apply longstanding principles of stare decisis, and decide this case accordingly. We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.” Sorry one last thing for those wondering about Court procedure: After oral argument the Justices take a tentative vote. This would have happened in December. The senior most justice in the majority gets to assign the opinion. That might have been Roberts, but doubtful since... — Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) May 3, 2022 So there is the possibility an opinion can flip after oral argument and the tentative vote, so it's theoretically powerful the Alito opinion won't be the vote of the Court. But it would require a Justice BESIDES Chief Justice Roberts to flip. — Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) May 3, 2022 The magnitude of this report is so serious that Politico included this editor's note vouching for the authenticity of the draft decision. Via Ben Mullin The leak has completely wiped the headlines and Twitter is exploding with hot takes. Leaking a draft SCOTUS ruling is worse than January 6th. The Court was the one institution where conservatives and liberals lived in peace and trust. You disagreed but the trust was sacred. This completely destroys the Court’s inner workings. Totally in shock right now. — Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 3, 2022 The fact that some are praising this leak shows how utterly craven we have become in our politics. There appears no ethical rule or institutional interest that can withstand this age of rage. — Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 3, 2022 FWIW, there’s not much the GOP wants less than Roe to actually be overturned. If the Politico scoop is correct, the GOP is now the dog who caught the car. Roe was always a shiny thing to campaign on (much like repealing Obamacare) but never something they actually wanted to do. — Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) May 3, 2022 This is why they leaked: "Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading...The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months." (Politico) https://t.co/9k0JfLfYZd — Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKsay) May 3, 2022 Probably the greatest violation of unwritten "norms" in the history of the Supreme Court. And I absolutely guarantee you the leaker spent years railing against President Trump's undermining of norms. https://t.co/XSa9LaGb66 — Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) May 3, 2022 Interference in a Supreme Court decision is a blow to democracy - like, say, stopping an electoral vote The conspirators must be rounded up and arrested and placed next to the J6 detainees — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 3, 2022 and. here. we. go. pic.twitter.com/5I9Ngxiz3U — Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) May 3, 2022