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Leaked SCOTUS Opinion Reaction

May 03, 2022

Referencing gay rights decisions, Prof. Roosevelt cautions, “If there are five justices who endorse this draft, it’s unlikely that they will stop with Roe.”

According to a leaked draft published by Politico, the Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights.

Kermit Roosevelt, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, has released the following statement:

First, in terms of who leaked it and why, it seems much more likely to me that it comes from the right in response to an actual or threatened defection by one of the five who voted to overturn Roe. Leaking this early draft makes that more costly for a defector because now people will think that they changed their vote after the leak in response to public outrage. So it makes sense as an attempt to lock in the result. It’s hard to see what a defender of Roe would get from the leak.

Second, in terms of consequences, it adopts a methodology that suggests recent gay rights decisions, from same sex marriage to the invalidation of sodomy bans, are not secure. If there are five justices who endorse this draft, it’s unlikely that they will stop with Roe.

I think it’s unlikely that anyone can do anything to influence the Justices. They don’t like to appear to be influenced, which is why the leak makes more sense as a method of locking in the result.

Roosevelt recently served on President Biden’s Supreme Court Commission and has written for TIME that Supreme Court expansion “may be the only thing that will save our democracy for the next generation.”

Read more Penn Carey Law reactions to the leaked SCOTUS opinion.