Leaked original draft majority opinion shows United States Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade legalization decision abortion nationwide, Politico reported on Monday.
The unprecedented leak from the conservative Supreme Court has sent shockwaves across the United States, especially because the court prides itself on keeping its internal discussions and leaks private. Leaks are extremely rare.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the draft immediately. If true, it would be an unprecedented revelation of a draft Supreme Court opinion.
The Supreme Court and the White House declined to comment.
“Roe was seriously wrong from the start,” conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a draft opinion dated February 10, according to Politico, which posted an online copy.
Based on Alito’s comments, the court will find that Roe’s decision against Wade to allow abortions to be performed before the fetus can survive outside the uterus – between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy – has been was decided wrongly because the US Constitution did not specifically mention the right to abortion.
“Abortion raises a profound ethical question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or banning abortion,” Alito said, according to leaked documents.
The news broke more than six months before the midterm elections, which will determine whether Democrats hold a majority in the US Congress for the next two years of President Joe Biden’s term in office. taste or not.
Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in American politics and has spanned nearly half a century.
Four of the other Republican-appointed judges – Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – voted with Alito during the conference held among the judges, the report added.
After an initial vote among judges by oral argument, one person is assigned a majority opinion and writes the manuscript. It was then circulated among the judges.
Sometimes, between the initial vote and the ruling, the arrangement of the vote can change. Judgment is only final when it is announced by the court.
In a Twitter post, Neal Katyal, a lawyer who frequently argues in court, said if the report is accurate it would be “the first major leak ever from the Supreme Court”.
The court, with a conservative 6-3 majority, heard oral arguments in December about Mississippi’s attempt to reinstate a ban on abortions starting at 15 weeks of gestation, a law rejected by the courts. blocked by subordinates.
It appeared to be based on oral arguments in December that a majority tended to support Mississippi’s abortion ban and that there could be five votes to oust Roe.
Roe’s decision to sue Wade recognizes that an individual’s right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution protects a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy.
Christian conservatives and many Republicans have long sought to turn the tide.
The Supreme Court in a 1992 decision called the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania sued Casey reaffirmed the right to abortion and prohibited laws that placed an “undue burden” on access to abortion.
Mississippi asked the judges to overturn both the ruling and Alito’s draft opinion largely through Republican arguments.
If Roe is overturned, abortion is likely to remain legal in free states. More than a dozen states now have laws protecting abortion rights. Many Republican-led states have passed various abortion restrictions despite Roe precedent in recent years.
Republicans could try to enact a nationwide ban on abortion, while Democrats could also seek to protect abortion rights at the national level.
Democrats said the draft of the opinion undermines the significance of this year’s election, in which they are seeking to maintain control of the House and Senate.
“We need to vote like we have never voted before,” Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin told MSNBC. “People need to stand up and defend democratic institutions and people’s rights because the Supreme Court certainly can’t do anything about us.”
Republican Senator Josh Hawley said, without evidence, that the leak was likely from a liberal inside the court.
“The judges must not give in to an attempt to derail this process. Stay strong,” he said in a Twitter post.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said on Twitter that New York would “always guarantee” the right to abortion.
“This is an absolutely disgraceful attack on our fundamental right to choose and we will fight it with all we have,” Hochul said on Twitter in a response to the report. Politico.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
