It almost certainly was a draft majority opinion. It’s too detailed for anything else.
The leak is unprecedented. I’m flabbergasted that a clerk, even a libtard clerk would stoop to these depths. The only reason for such a leak is to try to drum up the goon squad to intimidate a justice into changing their mind.
What this means is that there were at least 5 votes in conference to overturn Roe. The next step would be to circulate opinions. Justices in the majority can and do sometimes change their minds and a majority opinion can turn into a minority one.
This actually happened with Casey in 1992. There were initially 5 votes in conference to overturn Roe. Then O’Connor got cold feet and drafted a new opinion and pulled Kennedy and Souter on her side.
The fact that this draft was leaked means that a liberal clerk is trying to make that happen again.
If it’s true I wouldn’t doubt the illegal unethical actions of a leftist judge or clerk.
I believe that is a correct assessment of the situation.
The reversal before final opinion happened with Obamacare as well, Roberts’s majority opinion upholding Obamacare was originally written as a reversal which is why it reads so incoherently.
He switched with only a few days to go which is why Scalia was so angry.
This incredible leak, intended as everyone says to drag politics into this process, is just one more log on the fire that is going to burn down the house.
If it’s not Breyer (unlikely), the guilty clerk won’t be punished but will become the next liberal heroine.
I wonder if the leak came from higher, like Kagan
Don’t forget that the court has IT staff and many of them would be liberals. They could be the leak source. And of course there are executive branch agencies that could acess the court’s systems.