WASHINGTON — A seismic shock hit the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday with the leak of a draft opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling, an extraordinary breach likely to further decimate trust among the justices at what was already a fractious time.
The Politico-published leak, which included a preliminary breakdown of the individual justices’ votes, marked the first time in modern Supreme Court history that a draft opinion was made public months before it was likely to be released. The draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito as a potential majority opinion and stamped with the date Feb. 10, said Roe was “egregiously wrong.”
“For an employee or member of the court to intentionally leak a draft opinion would be a gross betrayal of trust, particularly if the leak were an effort to advance partisan aims or to undermine the court’s work and legitimacy,” said Rick Garnett, a Notre Dame Law School professor who clerked for then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist during the 1996-97 term.
