nearly 18 months ago upended the American# landscape of reproductive rights.

State## laws popped up restricting abortion access.# The issue became central to some elections.

And we have heard many stories# of confusion from patients and## doctors trying to understand the new limits.

GEOFF BENNETT: A new story from The# New York Times exp internal dynamics of the court, from# how the justices decided case to how the decision was drafted# and when it was ultimately handed down.

Jodi Kantor is one of the authors# of that report and she joins us now.

Thank you for being with us.

Jodi, many of the justic who was picked by Donald Trump# in part to help overturn Roe,## according to your reporting, initially# opposed even hearing the case?

What changed?

JODI KANTOR, The New York Times: When Adam Liptak# and I were reporting the story, that was one of## the big surprises, because, of course, she# did eventually v But voting whether to take the case# or not is a different matter.

And,## initially, what she said was that she# wanted to vote to grant to hear the case,## but that she had timing reservations, that# she didn't want to hear the case that term,## which some of her conservative# colleagues were pushing to do.

And then, months later, she actually ended up# changing her vote from a grant it didn't make a substantive difference.

You# only need four votes, which Justice Alito had## to move the case forward.

But it meant that# the case moved forward with a bare minimum## of the court, only four votes.

And, by# the way, those were all male justices.

GEOFF BENNETT: There's another# detail in your reporting,## that the justices initially voted in# Januar This was months before they publicly# announced that they would hear it.

And## you report that it was Justice Brett# Kavanaugh who pushed for a delay to## create the appearance of distance from# Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.

Why did he think that was important?

JODI KANTOR: So one of the things# that he ci watch some other abortion cases# play out in the lower courts.

But it's really the effect that's so# interesting.

It pushes the case to the## next term.

And also it creates this# appearance of distance from Justice## Ginsburg's death.

The court has the vote to# grant.

The case is clearly moving forward.## And yet they essentially withhold the# decision from the public for months.

GEOFF BENNETT: And once Justice Samuel# Alito wrote that draft of his opinion## and sent it to his colleagues, you# report that the other conservative## justices quickly signed onto it# without requesting any changes.

And that was Alito's way, reportedly, of trying to# safeguard a coalition around overturning Roe.

How and why did the leak of his opinion to Politico# in May of 2022, how did that cement the ruling?

JODI KANTOR: So, one of our discoveries is that## there were really extensive attempts# to craft compromises.

We don't know if## they would have worked.

We don't know# what prospect they had at succeeding.

But Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice# Stephen Breyer, the first thing they## did is they tried to stop the case from# being heard.

Then, when it went forward,## Justice Roberts -- and this is public.

He's# described this in oral arguments and in his## opinion -- he had a kind of 15-week compromise,# where he wanted to uphold the Mississippi law,## which restricted abortion to 15 weeks,# but he didn't want to overturn all of Roe.

And he was all -- even though that# was a very lonely position this court,## he only needed one more vote to make that# happen.

And, in fact, Justice Stephen## Breyer was considering joining him in that# position.

That would have been just symbolic.

But if, say, Justice Brett Kavanaugh had# joined that position as well, the entire## outcome would have been different.

And so the# leak came just as those efforts were under way,## and it rendered them hopeless.

Justices' votes# are secret for a reason, because they want room## to change their minds, which sometimes they# do, before the official opinion comes out.

And in this case, because# everything became so public,## it really cemented the results and locked them# in.

So we don't know but we can say what the effect was, which# was to really lock in the final result.

GEOFF BENNETT: Pulitzer Prize-winning# journalist Jodi Kantor of The New York## Times, thanks for sharing your reporting with us.

JODI KANTOR: Thank you.