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Activists Gather at Supreme Court for Late-Night Protest After Roe v. Wade Draft Opinion Leak (Live Updates)


Activists Gather at Supreme Court for Late-Night Protest After Roe v. Wade Draft Opinion Leak (Live Updates)

Protesters flocked to the Supreme Court late Monday evening after a draft opinion from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to Politico.


The 98-page draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito is the first document of this magnitude to be leaked from the Supreme Court.

In the draft, which was written in February and may have changed since, Justice Alito wrote, "we hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled."

"It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives," the draft, which is titled "Opinion of the Court" continued.

The Politico story was published just after 8:30 p.m., and by 10 p.m. local time a crowd had already gathered at the court — with more protesters consistently arriving throughout the evening.

Barricades were also installed outside the court within a half an hour of the news breaking.










Roe v. Wade remains in place until the opinion is signed. Votes and drafts may change up until that point.

If it is overturned, laws regarding abortion will be left for individual states to decide.

According to the Politico report, "the three Democratic-appointed justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – are working on one or more dissents," it added that "How Chief Justice John Roberts will ultimately vote, and whether he will join an already written opinion or draft his own, is unclear."

Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett had voted with Alito — per the report.

Just before 11 p.m., pro-abortion protesters got into a heated exchange with pro-life activists who had also descended on the court.






At least one fight broke out.


Prior to the confrontation between the opposing sides, the crowd was largely peaceful with no reported arrests as of 3:00 a.m. local time.

The protest at the Supreme Court is currently ongoing. Timcast will be continuing to provide updates as the situation unfolds.

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