In news that took social media and the country by storm, a reported draft of the majority opinion from Justice Samuel Alito in a Mississippi abortion case leaked, suggesting the Supreme Court voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion ruling.
The reported 98-page opinion, leaked by Politico, was supported by at least five justices.
Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett voted with Alito after hearing oral arguments in December, and that list remains unchanged, a source told the outlet.
It remains unclear how Chief Justice John Roberts will vote.
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," the justices reportedly wrote in the opinion for the Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. "The constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
Liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan are reportedly working on dissents.
"Abortion presents a profound moral question," the opinion acknowledges. "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey regulated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives."
If the leak is accurate, it would be the first major leak from the Supreme Court in history, Just the News reports.
The ruling would mean that abortion would now go to the states.
Following the leak, the Supreme Court is bracing for protests with barricades being placed around the building in D.C.
