The United States Supreme Court on Thursday said that it has not identified the individual who leaked the draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health opinion last year, the ruling which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.

What You Need To Know

  • The Supreme Court says it has not identified the individual who leaked the draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade

  • The draft opinion, published by POLITICO in May of last year, was largely the same as the formal decision issued the next month

  • The report from Gail Curley, the Marshal of the United States Supreme Court, said that investigators conducted more than 125 interviews with nearly 100 employees, "all of whom denied disclosing the opinion"

  • In a statement Friday, Curley said that she spoke with each of the Supreme Court justices, but they did not sign sworn affidavits

The draft opinion, published by POLITICO in May of last year, was largely the same as the formal decision issued the next month. Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation into what he termed an "egregious breach of trust" the day after the draft opinion was published.

Never before had an entire opinion made its way to the public before the court was ready to announce it.

The report from Gail Curley, the Marshal of the United States Supreme Court, said that investigators conducted more than 125 interviews with nearly 100 employees, "all of whom denied disclosing the opinion." 

"At this time, based on a preponderance of the evidence standard, it is not possible to determine the identity of any individual who may have disclosed the document or how the draft opinion ended up with Politico," the report reads. "No one confessed to publicly disclosing the document and none of the available forensic and other evidence provided a basis for identifying any individual as the source of the document."

The report said that it could not rule out the possibility that there was a hack, though there is no evidence of that thus far. Similarly, they acknowledged that the draft opinion was potentially leaked either accidentally or via negligence.

"While investigators and the Court’s IT experts cannot absolutely rule out a hack, the evidence to date reveals no suggestion of improper outside access," the report continues. "Investigators also cannot eliminate the possibility that the draft opinion was inadvertently or negligently disclosed – for example, by being left in a public space either inside or outside the building."

The “risk of both deliberate and accidental disclosures of Court-sensitive information” grew with the coronavirus pandemic and shift to working from home, the report said. More people working from home, ”as well as gaps in the Court’s security policies, created an environment where it was too easy to remove sensitive information from the building and the Court’s IT networks,” the report said.

In a statement released Friday, Marshal Curley said that she spoke to each of the Supreme Court justices individually about the leak, "several on multiple occasions," during the course of the probe.

"The Justices actively cooperated in this iterative process, asking questions and answering mine," Curley said. "I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses."

"I did not believe that it was necessary to ask the Justices to sign sworn affidavits," Curley added.

The high court said that the investigation will continue.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.