By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito believes last May’s leak of a draft ruling ending the nation’s right to abortion was intended to “intimidate” the court into changing its decision the conservative judge told the Wall Street Journal.
“It was part of an effort to prevent Dobbs’ draft … from becoming a court decision,” Alito said in an interview published by the newspaper on Friday, referring to the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. “And that’s how it was used during those six weeks by outsiders, as part of the campaign to try to intimidate the court.”
The judge’s comments, part of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, come after the court said in January that its eight-month investigation had failed to identify the party responsible for disclosing a draft that would foreshadow the decision. of the court in June eliminating the right. to the legalization of abortion throughout the country.
Alito, who wrote the Dobbs decision, said he thought he knew who leaked the decision to the Politico news outlet, but provided no evidence to back up that claim.
“I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that’s different from the level of proof it takes to name someone,” he said.
A narrow majority of Americans (56%) view the US Supreme Court unfavorably, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month. Partisanship colors that opinion, with 72% of Democrats who responded to the poll viewing the court unfavorably and 65% of Republicans viewing it favorably.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)