U.S. Supreme Court leak probe ordered, protesters gather over potentially seismic abortion ruling
CBC
U.S. President Joe Biden said he will fight to preserve access to abortion services, while the chief justice of the Supreme Court ordered an investigation after an unprecedented leak suggested that the top court may overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.
A leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests the court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, Politico reported late Monday.
"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the draft opinion, which is dated Feb. 10, according to Politico, which posted a copy.
Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics and has been for nearly a half century. The news broke a little more than six months before midterm elections that will determine if Democrats hold their razor-thin majorities in the U.S. Congress for the next two years of President Joe Biden's term.
Biden called it a potentially "radical" decision in American jurisprudence, one that could have ramifications for other privacy rights involving contraception and gay rights.
"It goes far beyond, in my view, it goes far beyond the concern of whether there's the right to choose," he told reporters before departing for a visit to Alabama.
In an earlier statement, the White House said it "will be ready when any ruling is issued."
"At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law," the statement attributed to Biden said.
To reporters, Biden said he wasn't prepared now to make a judgment on whether the Senate filibuster on legislation intended to protect abortion rights — which requires a 60 per cent threshold for votes instead of a simple majority — should be overturned
Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the draft as authentic in a statement, calling the leak a "singular and egregious breach." Roberts said he had ordered the Marshal of the Supreme Court to initiate an investigation.
"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," Roberts said.
Biden said he had been informed the draft was authentic but that he had been informed that, "it doesn't represent who's going to vote for it yet."
"I hope there are not enough votes for it."
Within hours of the news, anti-abortion activists chanting "hey, hey, ho, ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go" and abortion rights supporters shouting "abortion is health care" were facing off outside the Supreme Court.
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