McConnell Calls Abortion Opinion Leak An ‘Attack’ On Supreme Court By The ‘Radical Left’
WASHINGTON ― Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe. v Wade a “stunning breach” and an “attack” on the Supreme Court.
“By every indication, this was yet another escalation in the radical left’s ongoing campaign to bully and intimidate federal judges and substitute mob rule for the rule of law,” McConnell said Tuesday morning in a prepared statement.
Nobody has taken responsibility for the leak; some beltway commentators have speculated it came from liberals opposed to the decision, while others have suggested a conservative leaker could by trying to forestall Republican justices from getting cold feet about the opinion, which was apparently drafted in February.
McConnell said nothing about the content of the draft, which, if finalized, would allow states to ban abortion outright. Some 26 states are likely to do so.
More than anyone else in Washington, McConnell is responsible for the Supreme Court’s 6-3 Republican majority. He blocked President Barack Obama from appointing a justice in 2016, arguing it was too close to an election, and then reversed himself so Donald Trump could put Amy Coney Barrett on the court in 2020.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also blasted the leak, describing it as a “clearly coordinated campaign to intimidate and obstruct the Justices of the United States Supreme Court.”
McConnell said it was “disgraceful” for Democrats such as President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to decry the likely demise of a constitutional right to abortion.
“Real leaders should defend the Court’s independence unconditionally,” McConnell said. “This lawless action should be investigated and punished as fully as possible. The Chief Justice must get to the bottom of it and the Department of Justice must pursue criminal charges if applicable.”
Orin Kerr, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said on Twitter it’s not clear that a crime has been committed.
“As far as I can tell, there is no federal criminal law that directly prohibits disclosure of a draft legal opinion,” Kerr wrote.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
