The United States (US) Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said on Tuesday, 3 May, that he had ordered an investigation into the leak of a draft opinion on abortion, which he termed as an "egregious breach" of trust.
"This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the court and the community of public servants who work here," Roberts said in a statement, as per AFP.
The draft opinion stated that a majority of the court voted to overturn the judgement on abortion, called Roe V Wade, Politico had reported.
The chief justice also directed the marshal of the court to initiate a probe into the source of the leak, saying that the draft was authentic, but was not the final decision regarding the matter.
"To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed," Roberts added.
He also said that court employees had an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the court.
Meanwhile, several Republican lawmakers in the US accused liberals of orchestrating the leak to create unrest and influence the opinions of different judges in the Supreme Court.
They also demanded a serious investigation into the matter by the US government, led by President Joe Biden.
The Draft on Roe V Wade
The draft, labeled "Opinion of the Court", reads "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” and that "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives."
While draft opinions often change by the time a decision from the court is announced, the leak is significant because early drafts of an opinion have never leaked before and the issue of abortion has been one of the most contentious topics in the United States.
Roe V Wade is a landmark US Supreme Court decision from 1973 that established a constitutional right to abortion. The case struck down abortion laws in several states, declaring that a state cannot ban abortion before the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb.
The case is colloquially referred as "Roe", the plaintiff's listed name, which was pseudonym for Norma McCorvey. The name "Wade" refers to the defendant Henry Wade, who was a Dallas County district attorney at that time.
(With inputs from AFP and Politico.)
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