Yet another breach!
The US Supreme Court accidentally released an opinion on Wednesday regarding a case concerning Idaho’s abortion ban.
A version of the Supreme Court’s decision on Idaho’s emergency abortion ban was shared online but promptly taken down.
Bloomberg News managed to obtain the document and released a copy on Wednesday.
It remains uncertain whether the document represents the final ruling or a preliminary decision.
It seems that the Supreme Court may be permitting emergency physicians to conduct abortions in specific situations.
“Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, according to the document. “While this court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires,”
NBC News reported:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday acknowledged that it inadvertently posted online a document related to a pending abortion case, which was obtained by Bloomberg Law before it was removed from the website.
Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe confirmed that a document was “inadvertently and briefly uploaded” to the court website, but added that the ruling “has not been released.”
Bloomberg also posted a copy of the document. NBC News could not independently verify the document. It is not known if it was a draft decision, the actual decision or neither.
The court appears set to allow emergency room doctors in Idaho to perform abortions in certain situations according to a copy of the decision, Bloomberg reported. The court is likely to dismiss the appeal brought by Idaho officials, Bloomberg said.
In May 2022, a leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was exposed to Politico’s senior legal reporter Josh Gerstein.
Following this incident, the Supreme Court issued a report on the leak related to the Dobbs case.
The report revealed that despite extensive interviews and sworn affidavits from 97 Supreme Court staffers, the leaker was not identified.
It also mentioned the implementation of new protocols for handling drafts.
Although Justice Alito expressed confidence in knowing the identity of the leaker, no conclusive evidence was presented in the report.