In a piece posted yesterday evening, Politico claimed to have exclusively gained access to “an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito” on behalf of the United States Supreme Court.
“Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled,” Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward wrote.
“The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months ….
No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending ….
Reacting to this revelation, Breitbart reporter Ken Klukowski then wrote in an independent feature there that “the opinion is probably genuine.
In an era of word processors, fraudsters can make documents that physically look like the real thing. But this is different.
First, Supreme Court opinions are dense and complex. There are extremely carefully written, and are full of citations and quotations. Experienced appellate attorneys know what they look like, and this carries all the hallmarks of that.
Also, each justice has his or her own voice. This reads like an opinion by Sam Alito. So there is every reason to believe he authored this first draft. And given that the Dobbs case was argued on December 1, the timestamp of February 10 on this draft would fit a normal opinion-writing timeframe for something of this scope ….
Both articles are available to be read without charge in their entirety online.
- “Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows” Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward (May 2, 2022) Politico.
- “Supreme scandal: Leaked Supreme Court Opinion overruling Roe v Wade — ‘Time to heed the Constitution,’ returns abortion to elected officials” Ken Klukowski (May 2, 2022) Breitbart.
