The Supreme Court has narrowed down its list of possible suspects in the case of who leaked the draft opinion of the impeding decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
A day after the draft opinion was published last year by Politico, Chief Justice John Roberts assigned the Supreme Court’s marshal, Gail Curley, to investigate the leak.But eight months after the leak and an internal Supreme Court investigation, there is still no word on who gave a draft of the Dobbs decision to the news outlet, which enraged Republicans and helped fire up liberals against the expected decision.
Btu the wall Street Journal reports today that the internal investigation has whittled down the list of potential suspects, which includes some law clerks:
Ms. Curley, a lawyer and former Army officer, oversees the Supreme Court’s in-house police force, which has an authorized strength of 189 officers and principal missions of patrolling the court’s property and protecting the justices. With its own police having little experience in complex investigations, the court brought in assistance from outside government investigators, people familiar with the matter said. By early summer, investigators had significantly narrowed the field of suspects, the people said.
The interviews were sometimes short and superficial, a person familiar with the matter said, consisting of a handful of questions such as “Did you do it? Do you know anyone who had a reason to do it?” Investigators relied in part on publicly available information about court employees to develop theories, the person said.
Each justice is allotted four law clerks, but dozens of other court employees might also have had access to the draft opinion.
Now that Republicans have taken back the House, they promise a committee investigation of the situation.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a pro-life Republican has become chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in December he planned to investigate both the leak and the subsequent violence against churches, pregnancy centers and pro-life groups.
“Dozens and dozens of churches were attacked, dozens and dozens of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers were attacked, protests occurred at Supreme Court justices’ homes, and there was an assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh. But to date, in this Congress, not one hearing in the House Judiciary Committee about that leak. Not one hearing,” Jordan said.
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As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The high court also ruled 6-3 uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban so states can further limit abortions and to get rid of the false viability standard.
Chief Justice John Roberts technically voted for the judgment but, in his concurring opinion, disagreed with the reasoning and said he wanted to keep abortions legal but with a new standard.
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was overturned and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state protecting babies from abortions and Kentucky became the 4th and Louisiana became the 5th and Ohio became the 6th and Utah became the 7th and Oklahoma became the 8th and Alabama became the 9th. This week, Mississippi became the 10th and South Carolina became the 11th,Texas became the 12th with its pre-Roe law and Tennessee became the 13th.
“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer authored a joint dissent condemning the decision as enabling states to enact “draconian” restrictions on women.
Polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion and a new national poll shows 75% of Americans essentially agree with the Supreme Court overturning Roe.
Despite false reports that abortion bans would prevent doctors from treating pregnant women for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, pro-life doctors confirm that is not the case. Some 35 states have laws making it clear that miscarriage is not abortion and every state with an abortion ban allows treatment for both.
