MADISON, Wis. — The chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday called for an investigation after the leak of a draft order indicating the court would hear a case case brought by Planned Parenthood which seeks to declare that access to abortion is a right protected by the state constitution.
Chief Justice Annette Ziegler then called for the investigation This was reported by Wisconsin Watch on the draft decision it has obtained. The order, as reported by Wisconsin Watch, said the court would hear the lawsuit, but it was not a ruling on the case itself.
“Today the entire court was shocked to learn that a confidential draft document had apparently been leaked to the press,” Zielger said in a statement. “I have contacted law enforcement requesting a full investigation.”
She said all seven judges “were united behind this investigation to identify the source of the apparent leak. We seven condemn this breach.”
Ziegler is part of a conservative minority of three judges on the court. The draft decision did not indicate which justices were in favor of accepting the abortion case, and no dissenting opinions were indicated, according to Wisconsin Watch.
Planned Parenthood filed the lawsuit in February. It asks the Wisconsin Supreme Court to strike down a 175-year-old state law that conservatives have interpreted as an abortion ban.
This is the second abortion lawsuit pending in court.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has not said whether it will accept an appeal of a lower court ruling won by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. He challenged the 1849 law as too old to enforce and trumped by a 1985 law that allows abortions up to the point where a fetus can survive outside the womb.
Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled last year that the law only prohibits assaulting a woman with the intent to kill her unborn child. The decision boosted Planned Parenthood resume offering abortions in Wisconsin after proceedings were halted following the US Supreme Court ruling.
Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican, has appealed asked the state Supreme Court to hear the case directly without waiting for a lower ruling on appeal.
According to Wisconsin Watch, the draft order in the Planned Parenthood case did not address the other lawsuit.
The abortion cases are among the most prominent cases before the court, which switched to liberal control in 2023.
The court in December threw out Republican-drafted legislative maps that gave Democrats a landslide victory, leading to the Legislature adopting new boundaries drawn up by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
The court also heard a lawsuit that would reinstate the use of absentee ballot box s, a closely watched case in battleground Wisconsin. A ruling in that case is expected soon, as the court’s term ends next week.