A report from Politico on Monday claims the Supreme Court has decided to strike down Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and return the matter of abortion to the states. The report includes a draft of the majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, who says Roe was “egregiously wrong from the start” and that a “right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.” Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett have allegedly voted alongside him, while Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer voted against. Chief Justice John Roberts reportedly has not yet made up his mind.

If this leak is true, this decision is an enormous win for the pro-life and conservative movements and should be celebrated as such. But it is also an unprecedented violation of the Supreme Court’s previously respected privacy — one that will have massive ramifications inside and outside the court.

The court has always prided itself on being leakproof. As Politico notes, “No draft decision in the modern history of the court has been disclosed publicly while a case was still pending.” Whoever leaked this has violated not only the trust of the justices but the integrity of the court itself, which was more than likely the intention. It is fair to assume that the leaker wanted news of the court’s decision to create enough political pressure to force one or more of the justices who have allegedly decided to buck Roe to change his or her mind.

That pressure will inevitably come. Indeed, the court is preparing for it now as I write:

It’s hard to know how this leak will affect the court’s processes, but there will be long-term consequences. Whether it affects the court’s reported decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, however, is another matter. For the sake of the many unborn lives at stake and the integrity of our judiciary, I sincerely hope it does not.