Jonathan Turley: Supreme Court Abortion Decision Leak ‘Original Sin for Judicial Ethics’

Whoever leaked the alleged draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has committed the “original sin for judicial ethics,” said Jonathan Turley, criminal defense attorney and Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

Politico published an alleged draft on Monday of the Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. The case revolves around Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban and is the most significant challenge in decades to the Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which declared abortion to be protected by the U.S. Constitution. The draft was seemingly written by Justice Samuel Alito and has circulated inside the Court, the news outlet reported.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito allegedly wrote in the document, which is labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

Turley said the leak represents “one of the greatest breaches of security in the history of the Court.”