Supreme Court Justices set to meet for first time since draft opinion leaked

Protests have sprung up around the country, including at the homes of the justices.

One abortion rights group is planning protests outside the homes of all six Republican-appointed justices – Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Alito – in what the group is calling ‘Walk-by Wednesday.’

Still, Alito’s opinion, which overturns the landmark case that made abortion legal in the country, remains the only circulated draft pending, Politico reported.

Additionally, none of the conservative justices who initially sided with Alito have to date switched their votes. And there are no dissenting draft opinions making the rounds from any other justice, including the three liberals on the court.

‘This is the most serious assault on the court, perhaps from within, that the Supreme Court’s ever experienced,’ a person close to the court’s conservatives told Politico. ‘It’s an understatement to say they are heavily, heavily burdened by this.’

The draft opinion could change before the court formally unveils its ruling in the Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, at the end of its term in late June or early July.

Many are watching Roberts, wondering what he will do in his role as Chief Justice, and seeing this case as the biggest test of his leadership.

He could try to get one of the other conservative justices to withdraw their support from Alito’s opinion and join him in a more centrist opinion that wouldn’t formally overturn Roe but would uphold Mississippi’s 15-week cut off for performing most abortions.

That would maintain some federal guarantee of abortion rights. Overturning Roe would return the abortion issue to the states, letting each one make their own law.

The leak of the draft opinion caused shock waves throughout the nation.  Tensions between both sides on the abortion debate have skyrocketed.

Anti-demonstration fences have gone up around the Supreme Court building.

Justices’ houses are being targeted.

The Senate on Wednesday will vote on codifying abortion rights into federal law but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer doesn’t have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster.

But Schumer is using the vote to make a political point.

‘We are making sure that every senator will have to vote and every American will see how they voted,’ he said, adding that he believed Republicans ‘will suffer the consequences electorally when the American people see that.’