“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,” Roberts said in a statement Tuesday.
“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” Roberts said. “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.”
The court’s public affairs office confirmed the document published by Politico is “authentic,” but stressed that “it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”
According to the draft authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the court would overturn Roe v. Wade’s holding of a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
The court did not comment on the potential breakdown of how justices would vote. Roberts did not respond to questions from CNN at his house Tuesday morning.
Reaction is swift
The draft opinion’s leak sent shockwaves through Washington, with the news of the potential overturning of Roe drawing outrage from Democrats that rivaled the anger expressed by Republicans over the breach of the high court’s secrecy norms.
“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,” he said in a statement.
Congressional Democrats issued similar statements Tuesday related to the draft opinion, but their counterparts zeroed in on the purported leak, blasting the move as an effort to change the court’s final decision in the matter.
Following the publication of the draft late Monday, protesters descended on areas outside the Supreme Court and have remained there through Tuesday afternoon. Many have held signs in support of abortion rights, and the crowd has occasionally chanted in opposition to the draft ruling, including by saying: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Samuel Alito’s gotta go,” and “Abortion rights are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back.”
This story has been updated with additional details Tuesday.