Alito says leak of Supreme Court abortion opinion made some justices "targets for assassination"

Washington — The unprecedented leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion to reverse Roe v. Wade put the lives of the justices who voted to unwind the constitutional right to an abortion at risk, Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the draft and final opinion by the court's conservative majority, said Tuesday.

"The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority in support of overruling Roe and Casey targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us," Alito said during a question-and-answer session at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Alito said there is support for his notion that the justices' lives were in danger: A California man armed with a gun, knife and various tools was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Maryland home in June and charged with attempted murder. The man, Nicholas Roske, said he was upset about the leak of the draft opinion indicating Roe would be overturned and the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, according to law enforcement.