Court leak aggravates partisan polarization

Since it was exposed by media on Monday last week, a leaked draft court opinion, which suggests the Supreme Court of the United States is considering tossing out longstanding abortion rights, has made waves in the US, even if the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the court hasn't yet made its decision.

According to a leaked initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito the Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark 1973 Roe versus Wade decision that guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights, arguing that the federal precedent establishing a woman's right to abortion is not supported by the Constitution and should be overturned.

The leak has once again highlighted the fractures in US society.

Following the Roe versus Wade decision and the 1992 US Supreme Court decision in the Palentodd versus Casey case, which ruled that states should not "impose an undue burden" on pregnant women who seek abortions before the fetus can survive outside the womb, every state in the United States has passed state legislation to give women the right to an abortion. This was regarded by most Americans and mainstream sociologists as a model of "progress in the protection of women's rights" and "social change".

But in the past decade or so, US society has gradually become more polarized. This has also exacerbated the traditional two-party game, which further aggravates the divide.

As US President Joe Biden has said, in the context of domestic politics of the US, the incident has never been a simple game solely about abortion rights, it is tightly bundled with the partisan politics of the United States.

Democrats and liberals are now pushing for Congress to immediately codify abortion rights through legislation, and the Democrats are trying to take advantage of the incident to raise doubts about the current judicial system in the US, which has been stacked in favor of the Republican Party at the highest level.

Republicans and conservatives have denounced the leak, calling it an attack on the court's independence. That's why Roberts ordered an investigation into the leak on Wednesday after admitting the authenticity of the draft court opinion.

What is certain is that, whatever the outcome of the Supreme Court's decision, the partisan political battle over it is bound to further tear apart the already polarized US society.