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[0] In what would be the most significant ruling in decades, a leaked draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion overturns Roeby Wade.
[1] This is a very big deal if it is, in fact, a legitimate first draft opinion on probably the biggest case the Supreme Court has considered in 50 years.
[2] We talk to legal experts about the significance of the leaked ruling and what it could mean for abortion laws in the country.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[4] It's Tuesday, May 3rd, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] The newly announced disinformation governance board comes under intense scrutiny as the Homeland Security Secretary defends its mission and its controversial leader.
[6] Will American citizens be monitored?
[7] No. Guarantee that.
[8] So what we do, we in the Department of Homeland Security don't monitor American citizens.
[9] You don't, but will this board change that?
[10] No, no, no. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
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[20] According to a Politico report published Monday, a leaked draft of the Supreme Court's upcoming opinion on an abortion rights case is set to overturn Roe v. Wade.
[21] The outlet describes the draft as a full -throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision on abortion.
[22] Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us to give the latest details about Politico's story and how experts are reacting.
[23] So, Megan, it goes without saying that this is a seismic development, if it's true.
[24] Maybe the biggest legal news out of the past 50 years.
[25] Yeah, it would be.
[26] And I think for that reason, it's hard to imagine Politico going out on a limb to report it if they didn't have that story nailed down.
[27] So according to the report, Alito authored this draft of a majority opinion in February.
[28] And according to Politico, he writes, Roe was egregiously wrong from the start, we hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.
[29] So as to the question of authenticity, the document is 98 pages and has a 31 -page appendix that extensively cites case law, books, and other legal experts that would be consistent with previous SCOTUS opinions.
[30] It also contains 118 footnotes.
[31] So in Politico's words here, the, quote, appearances and timing of this draft are consistent with court practice.
[32] The document is labeled the opinion of the court.
[33] So what do we know so far about the opinion?
[34] So Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney -Barratt, voted with Alito after oral arguments in December, and Politico says their anonymous source is telling them that those four justices haven't changed their view since then and are indeed going to go ahead and vote with Alito.
[35] So I think the big question we have is why someone at the court would leak it early.
[36] Now, that's an absolutely shocking development and unheard of for SCOTUS.
[37] Even in huge landmark cases like Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage, we did not know that opinion before it was handed down.
[38] And already, experts are pointing out that if this story is accurate, that's a big if.
[39] One reason to leak it might be because it is still a draft and pressure could be brought to bear on justices through negative media coverage.
[40] Now, given how unprecedented a leak like this would be, that does lend a little more credence to this theory, perhaps suggesting that someone hopes to change the outcome by leaking the draft of the opinion.
[41] As Politico points out in the report, SCOTUS deliberations are fluid, and justices have been known to change their minds while those drafts are still being circulated among them.
[42] And this was based on the Mississippi case that banned abortion.
[43] after 15 weeks, correct?
[44] Correct.
[45] So that case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
[46] Mississippi first passed that law in 2018, and within a day, the only licensed abortion provider in the state sued.
[47] The first district court to hear the case ruled in favor of the clinic and placed an injunction on the state to stop them from enforcing the law.
[48] The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling.
[49] At that point, Mississippi appealed to the Supreme Court.
[50] So what will this mean for abortion in America?
[51] Well, contrary to what a lot of people believe, this would not ban abortion.
[52] However, it would free up states to make their own laws about abortion through the legislative process, and those laws could be restrictive.
[53] Now, right now, there are more than 20 states with laws on the books banning abortion, either partially or fully.
[54] Those laws were previously blocked under Roe, but this decision could free the states to enforce those laws.
[55] On the other hand, states also remain free to keep abortion legal, which presumably many of them would continue to do.
[56] All right.
[57] Well, Megan, thanks so much for giving us this context, and we'll have you back on when we find out more.
[58] Absolutely.
[59] Thanks so much, Georgia.
[60] That's Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[61] Coming up, we speak to legal experts about the leaked document and what it means for the country.
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[70] Following the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion, we reached out to multiple experts about the ruling and what it can mean both legally and politically.
[71] One expert we reached out to is Carrie Severino, lawyer and president of the Judicial Crisis Network.
[72] asked Carrie, who clerked for the Supreme Court, about the significance that this document was leaked.
[73] So, Carrie, what is the precedent for this?
[74] Have Skoda's opinions been leaked in the past?
[75] Well, I can think of no example, certainly in modern history.
[76] I don't know ever of a leak like this.
[77] Look, when I was clerking at the court, this would have been seen as just the unpardonable sin to, even after you left the court, leak internal information about even details like which case you work on.
[78] people don't talk about, let alone the inside internal details, like an opinion itself.
[79] When I was working there, you couldn't even bring home opinions like on a flash drive or something.
[80] It was so highly guarded.
[81] So to see this, it just floored me. And I think anyone else who had clerked at the Supreme Court or almost any other court probably has the same response.
[82] Now, given that, it sounds like someone really went out on a limb risking their professional reputation.
[83] to do this, who has access to this information?
[84] Well, I think everyone's assumption is this probably was from one of the clerks of the liberal just the people who would have had this information is a very tight circle.
[85] It probably is just the justices themselves, the clerks, I suppose the administrative staff in the office, but really I think the most likely thing is this was a liberal clerk kind of who thought that this was worth risking an attack on a real breach of trust and attack on And dealing the only institution in D .C. that everyone thinks is at least trustworthy and not going to leak.
[86] It's a desperation move.
[87] And I think it's part of a pattern of bullying and intimidation of the justices that unfortunately has been increasing.
[88] I think they were hoping maybe this would have an effect and flip some justices votes or put pressure on the court from the outside.
[89] Another expert we spoke to Sarah Perry is a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
[90] So, Sarah, if this indeed ends up being an authentic ruling of the court when it's released this summer, how will this change abortion laws in the U .S.?
[91] Significantly.
[92] And the answer there is that we are seeing some excellent initial statements from Justice Alito, who looks to have been the author of this draft opinion.
[93] But it will significantly change abortion law.
[94] And under the 10th Amendment, it is considerably a state's rights issue.
[95] This will go back to the states under the Constitution.
[96] is that particular type of issue left to the states to regulate and legislate upon at the local level where representative government can work closest to the individuals whose interests they represent.
[97] But Alito brings up a great point in this opinion, which is to say that Roe and Casey, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, have done nothing to settle the debate, but in fact have actually deepened the abortion divide.
[98] And rather than finding a right to constitutional abortion that was plucked very nearly out of thin air by Justice Blackman in 1973, this instead makes those decisions.
[99] It sends those important debates and discussions back to the state houses where they always, particularly as Justice Scalia once wrote and Casey, always should have been.
[100] So ultimately, we're going to see a two -tiered approach.
[101] Most likely, both the GOP and the Dems will achieve or pursue a federal legislative initiative.
[102] They will try to pass laws at the federal level using Congress's enumerated powers in the Constitution.
[103] But we're likely to see an even greater level of activity within the states.
[104] In fact, over 120 abortion laws were passed in 2021 alone.
[105] So we have been seeing an uptick in state laws.
[106] specifically in anticipation of rose overturning.
[107] So it will be a two -fold approach, but it's likely to be a very active election season.
[108] Well, Georgia, as they both made quite clear, if this ends up being the final ruling, the landscape for abortion laws in America is going to change dramatically.
[109] Right, and there's no getting around it.
[110] This is going to have a serious impact on the way Americans view the Supreme Court.
[111] Over the weekend, the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the decision to launch a new disinformation board.
[112] Here to give us the details on the fallout from the announcement of the disinformation board is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pince Bond.
[113] All right, Charlotte, the DHS secretary made the media rounds.
[114] What did we hear from him and how are folks responding?
[115] Well, Majorcas was already under fire for his decisions pertaining to the border, but he made headlines again this weekend when he talked about the new controversial disinformation governance board, which critics have deemed the Ministry of Tristan.
[116] a reference to the famous book, 1984.
[117] On Fox News Sunday, the secretary admitted that the board wasn't rolled out perfectly and went on to claim that it would focus on disinformation from hostile countries.
[118] We address disinformation that presents a security threat to the homeland.
[119] Disinformation from Russia, from China, from Iran, from the cartels.
[120] But the main question that a lot of people have, of course, is not the international threat, as much as how this might impact American citizens.
[121] Marius was pressed on CNN about this and was pretty vague about what the group will actually do.
[122] But he did insist that they won't monitor American citizens.
[123] He also claimed the board would make sure civil liberties and free speech are not infringed upon, but again, it was difficult to narrow down just how the board would actually function.
[124] What it does is it works to ensure that the way in which we address threats, the connectivity between threats and acts of violence are addressed without infringing on free speech, protecting civil rights and civil liberties, the right of privacy.
[125] And the board, this working group, internal working group, will draw from best practices and communicate those best practices to the operators, because the board does not have operational authority.
[126] Okay, so Majorca said the board doesn't have operational capability.
[127] but apparently it will provide guidance to the people that do.
[128] Apparently so.
[129] A particularly concerning statement from Iyarchus came when he specifically mentioned the 22 midterm elections in a hearing last week.
[130] He said that the board would be specifically focused on the spread of disinformation in minority communities ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
[131] So the focus is on the midterms.
[132] That doesn't sound like foreign threats.
[133] Right.
[134] And that's turned a lot of heads.
[135] Morning Wire spoke with Laura Reese, former.
[136] acting deputy chief of staff at Homeland Security and senior research fellow for Homeland Security at Heritage.
[137] Here's what she had to say about the new disinformation board.
[138] The Constitution clearly states there should be no law abridging free speech of Americans.
[139] And while this is in Congress standing this up, it's the executive branch.
[140] Americans should be very worried about what this means after living through 2020, specific misinformation, disinformation regarding COVID, the 2020 election.
[141] so many things that bore out as true.
[142] This has nothing to do with the mission of Homeland Security.
[143] And the woman that they've tapped to lead this, Nina Jankewitz, has a consistent and seemingly intentional record of being wrong on what she has labeled as disinformation.
[144] So Congress needs to defund this and do it quickly.
[145] Now, Reese mentioned Nina Jankewitz, the person tasked with heading up the board.
[146] remind us about the controversy around her.
[147] Right, so not only did Jankowitz say that the Hunter Biden laptop story was disinformation, a story that's now been verified, but some videos just seem a little off to many, and they show her being less than professional.
[148] For example, there's a TikTok video of her singing about disinformation to a song from Mary Poppins.
[149] They're laundering disinfo when we really should take note and not support their lives with our wallet voice or vote.
[150] Even more to the point, though, is what?
[151] she recently said on NPR about free speech.
[152] I shuddered to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities all around the world, which are already shouldering so much of this abuse.
[153] Well, the federal government being involved in policing misinformation and disinformation certainly raises a lot of questions and concerns.
[154] It does.
[155] Charlotte, thanks.
[156] That was Daily Wires, Charlotte Pinspon.
[157] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[158] A mother in Florida is suing public school officials for guiding her young daughter through a gender transition at school without parental consent.
[159] School officials allegedly provided the girl who was just 13 at the time with a transgender support plan specifying that her parents were not to be notified.
[160] The mother, a mental health professional, told Fox News this week.
[161] This is happening all over the nation.
[162] This same protocol is in place in many, many schools.
[163] across districts everywhere, and even the guides being used to dictate these transgender support plans that cut parents out, even have the same language.
[164] Similar cases are pending in California, Massachusetts, Texas, and Wisconsin.
[165] A new poll by NPR found that parents of kids under the age of 18 are twice as likely to vote for Republicans over Democrats.
[166] When the parents were asked which party they'd vote for if the election for Congress was held today, 60 % percent.
[167] of Republicans, while 32 % chose Democrats.
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