Supreme Court Justice John Roberts tried to persuade his fellow conservative justices against fully dismantling Roe v. Wade, but the infamous opinion leak in May thwarted his already long-shot efforts, CNN reported on Tuesday.
Roberts reportedly aimed his persuasion efforts at Justice Brett Kavanaugh — whom the chief justice has known since the early ’90s when they both worked in the George H.W. Bush administration — in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that ultimately led to Roe‘s demise.
Roberts also reportedly tried to sway Justice Amy Coney Barrett to a lesser degree.
But then Politico published a draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in the Dobbs case on May 2, publicly revealing that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority had voted to strike down Roe.
The stunning and unprecedented leak crushed the slim odds of Roberts being able to convince his conservative colleagues to salvage abortion rights, and likely ensured that the justices would stick to their votes, according to CNN.
In fact, the leak spurred conservatives to push for a quicker release of the decision to avoid more disruptions, CNN reported.
CNN noted that anti-abortion and conservative activists had anticipated Roberts’ lobbying efforts and feared he could successfully convince Kavanaugh or Barrett to switch sides.
Though Roberts has opened an investigation into the matter, the source of the leak is still unknown.
It should be noted that Roberts, who was appointed by George W. Bush, did not seek to fully preserve Roe: CNN revealed in a previous report that Roberts still wanted to partially dismantle the landmark ruling, just not kill it entirely.
Which is exactly why one of his fellow Conservative nutjobs leaked it.
That’s the smoking gun right there. I said it from the beginning, that the instant the right stops screaming about the leak we’ll know they’d traced it to a fanatical right wing nutjob, either Uncle Thomas or one of his brown shirt goons. And when was the last time you heard so much as a peep about it out of fucking McConnell, or Faux noise? Kind of wish we had a functioning press in this country so they could shove the right’s nose into their fucking lies.
Roberts looks even weaker and more ineffectual.
Bulls***. There was never any chance of salvaging that precedent. You’re trying to tell me Kavanaugh or Barrett would have saved Roe? Hah! I don’t believe it.
Oh, boo-hoo. Little Johnny isn’t upset about the Dobbs outcome. Rather, he haz a sad that the opinion of the SCROTUS now hovers among that of Congress, nails on a chalkboard and lima beans.
He would have preferred to dismantle Roe bit-by-bit, to achieve the same goal whilst avoiding the negative publicity.