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The Supreme Court again prolonged the wait for its opinion on Tuesday in the case expected to overturn the federal right to an abortion.
Last month, Politico published a leaked draft opinion that indicated the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established a federal right to an abortion.
The justices released a handful of decisions Tuesday, but not in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Supreme Court prolongs wait for highly-anticipated decision in case expected to overturn Roe v. Wadehttps://t.co/BD0ExitAtT
Pull the bandaid off it will only get worse no matter how you rule now— AppSame (@AppSame) June 21, 2022
The Supreme Court will soon deliver the official ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the highly anticipated abortion case that could overrule Roe v. Wade.
A draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to Politico in early May and it set off a firestorm on social media.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
“We, therefore, hold 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,” Alito writes in the document, labeled the “Opinion of the Court.”
Soon after Alito’s draft majority opinion leaked, it’s assumed there were at least 5 votes in favor of overturning Roe v Wade, leaving state legislators to weigh their own abortion policies.
Following the leak, a report said that the majority of justices who signed on to Alito’s decision had not changed their minds.
The Washington Post, citing conservative sources within the court, reported that the four justices who agreed with Alito’s opinion — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — had thus far refused to change their minds.
It’s not clear if any of those justices changed their view in the ensuing weeks, though most court observers don’t think that was likely to happen.
Supreme Court officials are ramping up their search for the source of the leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
And one Republican thinks he has an idea of “who” the leaker might be.
In an interview with Newsmax, Montana GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale said he was certain at least some of the justices know the leaker’s identity, saying he thinks they should come forward if they do.
“We all could probably agree that the justices that were appointed by Democrat presidents know who the leaker was,” he said. “What bothers me, it’s not only the undermining that it did of the institution and the trust factor that these folks have with each other, it’s that now that the trust is broken, it’s very difficult to restore it.”
“There could be more people involved, and those people could go all the way to the top,” he said. “Don’t eliminate the judges because you know people, so there’s no way that would happen. No way. Think about it. Michael Sussmann is on trial right now for Russiagate. That happened six years ago. We’re only getting answers right now. I hope it doesn’t take another six years to get answers to what happened at the Supreme Court.”
However, the investigation has not identified any suspects and the court’s integrity is growing weaker by the day, according to NPR.
One source told the outlet that “the place sounds like it’s imploding.”
Another said, “I don’t know how on earth the court is going to finish up its work this term.”
