Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday lashed out at Democrats for failing to complain about the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would allow states to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term and instead choosing to criticise the draft opinion itself.
Mr McConnell – who was instrumental in allowing former president Donald Trump to appoint three of the justices who joined Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion striking down a half-century of precent by overruling Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey – called the leak a “stunning breach” meant as an attack against the high court’s independence.
Citing no evidence, the Kentucky Republican attributed the disclosure of Justice Alito’s 10 February draft to the “radical left” out of a desire to “bully and intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule for the rule of law”.
It is unknown who provided a copy of the draft document to Politico, but many veteran court-watchers have suggested that it is equally possible the leaker is someone aligned with the conservative majority on the court who wishes to prevent any of the justices from reversing course.
Mr McConnell condemned President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for issuing statements criticising the court’s apparent decision to allow states to compel women to give birth against their will rather than express outrage at the leak, calling their statements “disgraceful” and accusing them of “[refusing] to defend judicial independence and the rule of law and instead play[ing] into this toxic spectacle”.
“Real leaders should defend the Court’s independence unconditionally,” said the Republican leader, who in 2016 refused to allow then-president Barack Obama to place then-District of Columbia Circuit Judge Merrick Garland on the court after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia by claiming Senate precedent barred a president naming a justice in an election year, but reversed course to allow Mr Trump to appoint Justice Barrett just weeks before the 2020 election.
Mr McConnell called for the “lawless action” of the leak to be “investigated and punished as fully as possible,” by criminal charges if necessary, and urged the court to “tune out the bad-faith noise and feel totally free to do their jobs, following the facts and the law where they lead”.
