"Does the White House condemn, explicitly condemn, this leak or has seeing this draft been seen as welcome by some here?" a reporter asked during a press briefing.
"I don't think we have a particular view on that other than to say that we certainly note the unprecedented nature of it," Psaki said. "What we are mindful of, and I spoke with the president about exactly this question yesterday, and obviously it's up to the Department of Justice to determine what, if any, action they will take, and I know obviously there have been calls for that by some Republicans but also members of the Supreme Court."
On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the draft majority opinion, which was published by Politico earlier this week and suggests the High Court could be poised to overturn Roe, returning the question of abortion to the states.
"Although the document described in yesterday's reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court, or the final position of any member on the issues in the case," Roberts wrote in a statement.
Roberts added that "to the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way."
The chief justice said he has "directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak."
On Wednesday, Psaki turned the focus away from the leak to the content of the draft opinion.
"While we have heard a number of raised concerns about the leak, our focus is on highlighting what the content in there would put at risk for women across the country," Psaki said. "I would note that many Republicans have wanted to talk about that and not about whether they support the protection of a woman's right to choose, a woman's right to make decisions with her doctor about her health care, maybe not a surprise given that by more than a 2-to-1 margin, American want the Supreme Court to support abortion rights."
The reporter followed up by asking if the White House would accept a decision by the Court overturning Roe as legitimate and if the administration would encourage Americans to support such a decision.
"I can't speak for what actions could be possible on the legal front; I would point you to the Department of Justice on that," she said. "But, what I can tell you will happen is — and this is what we're preparing for the possibility of — that if Roe were to fall, abortion would probably be illegal in about half the states in the country, up to 26 states particularly in the South, Midwest, and West who have all spoken out, many leaders, about how they're poised to restrict or ban access. Some have even taken action even as recently as yesterday."
The drafted majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, reads: "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives."
President Biden, for his part, suggested that an overturning of Roe could somehow snowball and eliminate any number of "rights."
"What happens if you have states changing the law, saying that children who are LGBTQ can't be in classrooms with other children? Is that legit, under the way that the decision's written?" Biden said on Wednesday.
"What are the next things that are going to be attacked?" Biden said. "Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that's existed in American history, in recent American history."
🪦 perhaps