Breyer says leak of Supreme Court draft to overturn Roe v Wade was ‘very damaging’ as leaker remains unknown

Now retired, former justice said he did ‘everything I could’ to persuade court against revoking constitutional right to abortion

Now-retired US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, among three justices who opposed the conservative majority’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion, said a leaked draft of the opinion in the landmark case was a “very damaging” breach of the high court’s protocol.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace weeks before the court returns for its upcoming session, Mr Breyer said “of course” he did not like the majority’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization on 24 June, which overturned precedents in Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey that upheld the right to abortion care.

“Was I happy about it? Not for an instant,” he said. “Did I do everything I could to persuade people? Of course, of course. But there we are and now we go on. We try to work together.”

He condemned a leak of a draft opinion of the decision, which largely mirrored the final decision released weeks later.

“It was very damaging because that kind of thing just doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t happen. And there we are,” he said.

His comments echo other justices who have denounced the leak, joining fellow liberal justice Elena Kagan, who called it “horrible”, “shocking” and an “obvious, blatant violation of the court’s rules.”earlier this month.

Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an internal investigation of the leak following the report of the draft first published by Politico, but it remains unclear who was responsible.

Justice Kagan said she anticipates a status update on the probe by the end of September.

“I don’t know anything. I suspect my colleagues don’t know anything, except for the chief justice maybe, about what the investigation has turned up if anything,” she said, according to CNN.

The court will begin hearing cases in the upcoming term on 3 October.

President Joe Biden nominated former federal public defender and appeals court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court following Mr Breyer’s decision to retire. She was confirmed by the US Senate by a vote of 53 to 47, with only three Republicans joining all Democrats in support, on 7 April. She was sworn in as an associate justice on 30 June.