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Protective fencing surrounds Supreme Court building following leaked Roe v. Wade draft opinion

The fences were being erected Wednesday evening.

WASHINGTON — Fences were seen going up outside the U.S. Supreme Court building Wednesday night, where large crowds have been gathering for the last two days after Politico leaked a draft opinion indicating Roe v. Wade could be overturned. 

The fences erected are similar to the "non-scalable" fencing that was set up outside the U.S. Capitol after a mob of Trump supporters rioted in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2021. 

U.S. Capitol Police and U.S. Supreme Court Police did not respond to requests for comment on the fencing Wednesday evening.

Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed that the 98-page draft was authentic and released the following statement:

"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.

We at the  Court are blessed to have a workforce – permanent employees and law clerks alike – intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court. This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the  Court and the community of public servants who work here.

I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak."

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