According to documents obtained by Politico, the Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning Roe V. Wade.
On Monday, Politico released an initial draft of a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito.
The 1973 Supreme Court decision, which applied a constitutional right to privacy and liberty to a woman’s decision to abort her unborn child, has since served as the basis for federal abortion rights.
If the report is accurate, questions regarding the legality of abortion will now be left to each of the states.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote in the Majority Opinion obtained by Politico. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
According to Politico, “a person familiar with the court’s deliberations” claimed that four Republican-nominated judges — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — voted with Alito.
The disclosure of Alito’s draft majority opinion is “a rare breach of Supreme Court secrecy and tradition around its deliberations,” Politico reported.
“It’s impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff. This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin,” SCOTUSblog noted on Twitter.
As of now, the justices’ votes are not final.
Do you agree with this decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe V. Wade?
Yes: 95% (973 Votes)
No: 5% (53 Votes)
“Under longstanding court procedures, justices hold preliminary votes on cases shortly after argument and assign a member of the majority to write a draft of the court’s opinion,” Politico reported. “The draft is often amended in consultation with other justices, and in some cases the justices change their votes altogether.”
Concluding the majority opinion, Alito wrote the following, according to the leaked document:
“We end this opinion where we began. 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,” Alito wrote on page 67.
“We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”
It’s impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff. This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) May 3, 2022
According to former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, this never could have happened without former President Donald Trump.
Back in December, McEnany told The Western Journal that the fact that Roe v. Wade could soon potentially be overturned was perhaps Trump’s “biggest accomplishment.”
Three of the four justices who reportedly voted in favor of overturning Roe — Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett — were all nominated by the former president.
