Hawley swiftly condemns Supreme Court leak, then calls on them to release the ruling

As the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft ruling overturning Roe v. Wade leaked Monday night, Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley quickly focused on one thing: the fact the draft had leaked.

“The left continues its assault on the Supreme Court with an unprecedented breach of confidentiality, clearly meant to intimidate,” Hawley tweeted about 20 minutes after the news broke. “The Justices mustn’t give in to this attempt to corrupt the process. Stay strong.”

The draft opinion shows a majority of justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal across the country.

The leak, first reported by Politico, sparked a flurry of questions: Will Republicans attempt to pass a federal abortion ban if they take control of Congress in the midterm elections? What happens to abortion laws in conservative states that have chipped away at protections for years? What are the implications for other court precedents at the heart of the culture wars, like LGBTQ rights? How will the court affect this year’s elections?

But in the aftermath of the shocking release, Republicans across the country attempted to shift the focus from implications to the fact that a draft had been leaked out of the country’s highest court.

Hawley, who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts from 2007 to 2008, called for whoever leaked the draft to be disbarred (if they are an attorney) or to be impeached (if they are a Supreme Court Justice). He said every justice should call their clerks and staff into their office to find out who leaked the document.

“This is really, really bad for the court,” Hawley told reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. “I think this is an attack on the independence and integrity of the court.”

In his weekly press conference, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chided reporters for asking about the implications of the draft ruling, saying the story was the fact that someone from inside the court was attempting to “discredit” the institution.

“All of this puts the cart before the horse,” McConnell said. “It seems to me we need to concentrate not on the leaked draft, but the fact the draft was leaked.”

Roberts confirmed Tuesday morning that the draft was authentic and said he asked the marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court to investigate. He called the leak an egregious breach of trust and an affront to the court.

Republicans at the Capitol on Tuesday weren’t waiting for the result of the investigation. They quickly placed the blame on Democrats, without providing evidence.

McConnell, who is largely credited with creating the 6-3 conservative control of the court with his decision not to fill the seat of former Justice Antonin Scalia until after the 2016 election, said Democrats have been trying to bring down the integrity of the Supreme Court for years.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall openly blamed Democrats, saying this is what they “do all of the time when they don’t like the outcome.”

Hawley, too, placed the blame on “the left,” saying the only motivation for leaking the document would be to pressure justices into changing their minds. He said he did not have evidence to back up the claim.

“I’m not privy to who leaked it,” Hawley said.

Others have posited that the opinion may have been leaked by conservatives who were attempting to lock in the votes of the justices who concurred with the decision. To avoid the appearance of being shaped by outside influences, the theory goes, the court would have to stick to the original draft, therefore cementing a decision to reshape the country’s abortion laws.

The draft decision, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, applies to the case Dobbs v. Jackson’s Womens Health. The case centered around whether Mississippi could ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Justices sometimes change their minds before a case is decided, but if the decision stands as it is, it would create a patchwork quilt of abortion laws throughout the country, where access to the procedure would be determined by where you live.

In 2019, Missouri passed a “trigger law,” which means the procedure would be outlawed in the state except in medical emergencies. In Kansas, the state Supreme Court ruled there is a right to abortion in the state’s constitution. But there’s a measure on the ballot this August that would overturn the measure, giving the conservative Legislature the ability to ban the procedure in future legislative sessions.

Hawley has long supported overturning Roe v. Wade and expressed optimism in December that the case would be decided that way.

He reiterated that support Tuesday, calling the decision “really good” and saying the justices did a thorough review of the precedent. To avoid any outside political pressure, Hawley said, the court should issue the opinion as is.

“No turning back now,” Hawley tweeted Tuesday morning. “Roe must be overturned.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 3:16 PM.

Daniel Desrochers

McClatchy DC

Daniel Desrochers covers Congress for the Kansas City Star. Previously, he was the political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky. He also worked for the Charleston Gazette-Mail in Charleston, West Virginia.