Speaking in Washington at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Alito gave no indication the court has determined who gave the opinion to Politico weeks before its scheduled release, calling the leak a grave betrayal of trust by somebody.Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said Tuesday night that the leak of the draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade this year endangered the lives of justices by putting a target on their backs.
Justice Samuel Alito said Tuesday that the unauthorized disclosure of a draft landmark Supreme Court majority opinion on abortion put some justices at risk of assassination.Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event, Alito said the release of his draft opinion made the justices presumed to be in the majority “targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.
Both court decisions were triumphs for conservatives and the religious right. Both majority opinions were written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. But the leak of the draft opinion overturning the constitutional right to abortion was disclosed in the news media by Politico, setting off a national uproar. With Hobby Lobby, according to Mr. Schenck, the outcome was shared with only a handful of advocates.
Alito, speaking at an event organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, also condemned the leak last May of his draft opinion overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, saying it made the justices "targets."
