[ad_1]<\/p>\n
Opposing theories about the identity and motivations of whoever leaked the Supreme Court\u2019s draft majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade are swirling nearly a week after it was published.<\/p>\n
The question of who benefits the most from piercing the institution\u2019s legendary veil of secrecy has become a major part of the outcry following the revelation that the conservative majority appears poised to strike down a constitutional right that has been in place for half a century.<\/p>\n
Politico did not reveal any information about how it obtained the draft ruling when it reported Monday night that four other conservative justices have sided with Justice Samuel Alito to overturn the precedent. Nothing in the draft opinion or the reported positions of the justices is final until the court issues a ruling.<\/p>\n
The idea that seems to have gained the most widespread traction is that the draft was leaked by someone opposed to the court overturning Roe \u2014 perhaps a clerk for one of the liberal justices \u2014 who wanted to galvanize the public by preempting the likely release of the decision in June.<\/p>\n
But an alternative and equally plausible proposition some court watchers have offered supposes an anti-abortion figure with access to the draft opinion leaked it in order to disway any of the conservative justices from switching sides or watering down the language involved before the court issues its ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kel McClanahan, an adjunct law professor at George Washington University and an attorney specializing in whistleblower law, says that the two dominant competing theories are premised on the belief that a liberal in the court would leak the document out of an optimistic hope that it would mobilize voters or that a conservative would do it to try to lock in the draft as the inevitable, final outcome in the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Democrat would do this to try and galvanize the public to go out and vote democratic and to enshrine Roe in statute,\u201d McClanahan said. \u201cA conservative would do this not for any public effect \u2014 they would do it because they were afraid that the final tally was not going to be five to four.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n