Supreme Court Slams Leaked Roe Opinion as a 'Betrayal' - “This was a singular and egregious breach” of trust

Chief Justice Roberts confirmed in a statement that the draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito and published late Monday by Politico, was authentic, but he said it was not necessarily the final resolution in the case. “This was a singular and egregious breach” of trust, he said.

Here is the Supreme Court's statement:

Yesterday, a news organization (Politico: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows) 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.

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