The U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to a leaked draft of an opinion obtained by Politico.
According to Politico, an “initial draft majority opinion” written by Justice Samuel Alito was “circulated inside the court” and is a “full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right.”
The decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, argues, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he continued. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Underscoring the unprecedented nature of the leak, Politico noted, “No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending.”
According to the outlet, justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted with Alito.
Meanwhile, justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented.
“How Chief Justice John Roberts will ultimately vote, and whether he will join an already written opinion or draft his own, is unclear,” Politico pointed out.
The outlet also noted, “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. The draft is often amended in consultation with other justices, and in some cases the justices change their votes altogether.”
After news of the opinion broke, protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court building.
