Wisconsin Supreme Court justices 'shocked,' call for probe into leaked court order on abortion lawsuit (2024)

Wisconsin’s seven Supreme Court justices were “shocked” to learn a draft order indicating the state’s highest court plans to hear a lawsuit seeking to affirm abortion is protected under the state Constitution had been leaked to a state news organization, the court’s conservative chief justice said Wednesday.

The court document was made public just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court inadvertently posted an opinion on that court’s website indicating the nation’s highest court appears poised to allow emergency abortions in Idaho when a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk.

Wisconsin Watch on Wednesday reported receiving a draft court order indicating the justices would take up the lawsuit by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin asserting that the Wisconsin Constitution should be interpreted to protect a woman’s right to abortion. The order also notes the court plans to deny motions by anti-abortion groups Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin seeking to directly intervene in the case, according to the outlet.

“Today the entire court was shocked to learn that a confidential draft document was ostensibly leaked to the press,” Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler said in a statement. “I have contacted law enforcement to request that a full investigation be conducted.”

“We are all united behind this investigation to identify the source of the apparent leak,” Ziegler continued. “The seven of us condemn this breach.”

The leaked order does not indicate which justices supported the decision to take up the case, according to Wisconsin Watch.

The lawsuit was filed in February and seeks to provide long-term protection for abortions in Wisconsin, given providers’ fear that the law surrounding the procedure could change at a moment’s notice. Republican legislators have sought to pass abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has pledged to veto those proposals.

The lawsuit was filed directly with the state Supreme Court in an effort to bypass lower courts. While the court doesn’t have to take up a case directly, the decision isn’t necessarily unexpected after the Wisconsin Supreme Court shifted to a 4-3 liberal majority last year.

The lawsuit asks the high court to declare that abortion rights are protected in the constitutional provision stating, “All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“At the sacred core of the inherent right to life and liberty lies the right to determine what one does with one’s own body, including whether and when to have a child,” the lawsuit states.

In response to the lawsuit, anti-abortion group Wisconsin Right to Life stated the Constitution protects “the right to life for all, including preborn children.”

The lawsuit was filed days after a Republican prosecutor asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether an 1849 law that had been widely interpreted as banning nearly all abortions applies to the procedure.

Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski’s petition to the high court follows a Dane County court ruling that the law applied to feticide, not consensual abortions. That ruling led abortion services to reopen last September after they had been shuttered for more than a year.

Urmanski’s lawyers said he thinks the 1849 law applies to abortion but wanted the high court to issue a final judgment. The court has yet to accept that case.