Chief Justice John Roberts will likely order a full FBI investigation into the leaked Supreme Court draft, according to a new report from CBS.
The news comes hours after an unprecedented leak of a draft majority opinion that showed the Court could be set to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
“Chief Justice Roberts is likely to order a full investigation involving the FBI into the reported leak of a draft majority opinion, reports @JanCBS — as some question if it will throw the Supreme Court’s legitimacy into question,” CBS Mornings tweeted early Monday.
Chief Justice Roberts is likely to order a full investigation involving the FBI into the reported leak of a draft majority opinion, reports @JanCBS — as some question if it will throw the Supreme Court’s legitimacy into question. pic.twitter.com/rJsIlQqjEU
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 3, 2022
Monday evening, Politico released the leaked SCOTUS draft to the public, but it remains unclear who inside the Court leaked it.
Initial reports suggest Roberts did not sign on with majority opinion as the other five conservative justices allegedly held that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes in the draft of the majority opinion. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Politico reported, “The three Democratic-appointed justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – are working on one or more dissents, according to the person. How Chief Justice John Roberts will ultimately vote, and whether he will join an already written opinion or draft his own, is unclear.”
On Monday night, the leaked draft had already created anger and celebration as tensions rose outside of the Supreme Court after the Politico released the document. A crowd of abortion supporters and pro-life advocates gathered outside the Court to protest the draft of the pending decision, The Daily Wire reported.
Court experts told The Daily Wire that the leak could be a political move. “The leak appears to be totally political in nature, not only intended to damage the Court and pressure the justices, but more immediately to incite Democrats to push their laundry list of terrible anti-life ideas, including blowing up the filibuster and attempting to codify abortion violence at the federal level prior to the November elections,” said Katie Glenn, Government Affairs Counsel at Americans United for Life (AUL).
Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, told The Daily Wire “That type of leak is an outrageous betrayal of trust.” She added, “The Supreme Court is the only institution in town that doesn’t leak, and to do this is a real attack on the institution of the court. Not to mention just an outrageous breach of trust to the justices to do so.”