Supreme Court investigators are zeroed in on 'small number' of possible leakers of Roe v. Wade draft

Supreme Court investigators probing the May leak of the draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade are reportedly narrowing in on a short list of possible suspects.  

A draft opinion of the Supreme Court's opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Clinic that was published in Politico last year sent shockwaves across the nation and triggered outrage and fiery protests among pro-choice advocates.

One day after the leak, Chief Justice John Roberts assigned the high court's marshal Gail Curley to investigate the leak. Almost no information has come out about the leak since then.

In June, investigators demanded that justices' law clerks surrender their cell phones and sit for interviews. 

Pro-choice protesters rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, USA, 03 May 2022

Pro-life protesters rally outside the court ahead of its final decision on Roe 

The decision to overturn Roe, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion before 20 weeks all across the country, was finalized in June. 

Most abortions are banned in at least 13 states. 

Curley oversees 189 police officers who are typically tasked with patrolling the court's property - with little experience in such investigations. The court has now brought in outside government investigators to assist, according to the Wall Street Journal. Since early summer the investigators have had their list narrowed down to who could have been the culprit. 

Crowds of pro-choice advocates gathered for months after news Roe would be overturned 

Justice Neil Gorsuch said at a judicial conference in September that Rogers had appointed a full internal committee to investigate the leak and is expected to issue a report. 

Leaking the court's decision was not necessarily unlawful but it did break decades of protocol that protects the court's internal deliberations. Whoever leaked the information would likely lose their job immediately. The judicial branch is the most secretive in Washington, where reporters have little access as clerks are drilled on not interacting with the media. 

Each justices has four clerks, though dozens of other employees could have been privy to the draft opinion, according to WSJ. Experts have speculated that the leak came from the Democratic side to drum up outrage and public pressure. 

The June 24 final decision written by Justice Samuel Alito was nearly identical to the leaked May draft. Four of the court's other conservatives joined Alito in supporting the overturning of Roe, three liberals dissented. Roberts filed a concurring opinion that would have allowed the Mississippi law at issue - a 15-week abortion ban - to move forward without touching Roe. 

He said he would have waited to decide whether tighter restrictions on abortion were constitutional. 

'I am not sure, for example, that a ban on terminating a pregnancy from the moment of conception must be treated the same under the Constitution as a ban after fifteen weeks,' Robert said in the separate opinion.