WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Monday cautioned that courts look political and forfeit legitimacy when they needlessly overturn precedent and decide more than they have to.
Speaking less than three months after a five-justice conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade’s constitutional guarantee of abortion access, Kagan said the public’s view of the court can be damaged especially when changes in its membership lead to big changes in the law.
She stressed that she was not talking about any particular decision or even a string of rulings with which she disagreed.
Still, her remarks were similar to points made in dissenting opinions she wrote or contributed to in recent months, including in the abortion case.
“Judges create legitimacy problems for themselves … when they instead stray into places where it looks like they’re an extension of the political process or when they’re imposing their own personal preferences,” Kagan said at Temple Emanu-El in New York. The event was livestreamed.
The 62-year-old New Yorker struck a different tone from Chief Justice John Roberts, who spoke to a gathering of judges and lawyers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last week.
“Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court,” Roberts said.
The chief justice has been a consistent defender of the court’s legitimacy against complaints that the court is not much different from the political branches of the government.
But Kagan said the court risks damaging its own legitimacy when big changes in the law follow changes in the court’s membership.
The public has a right to expect, she said, “that changes in personnel don’t send the entire legal system up for grabs.” Kagan joined the court in 2010, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Three of the justices who are part of the court’s conservative majority were appointed by President Donald Trump. They voted to overturn Roe, and also imposed limits on the Biden administration’s efforts to fight climate change, expanded gun rights and weakened the separation between church and state.
In the court term that begins next month, the court will take up a challenge to the use of race in college admissions, just six years after the court reaffirmed affirmative action in higher education.
Kagan also briefly addressed the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion in the abortion case, saying it makes the justices’ jobs much harder “when you might wake up tomorrow morning and there’s an opinion on the front page of the newspapers.”
She said she does not know if the investigation Roberts ordered in May has determined the source of the leak.
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Roe v Wade wasn’t overturned needlessly. It was fated to happen by history from the day the decision was handed down. Everyone knew it, Constitutional law professors knew it, Justices on the Court knew it, scholars and pundits knew it, it would be inevitable at some point. That point came and the issue came back into public discussion and the liberals must now justify this brutal and savage acyion.
You are right on! However, these justices have to shut their mouths concerning the decisions that are made at this level. Her words did not help at all – did just the opposite. Enough said about this st this level.
YET she had no issue, ruling on gay marriage, AFTER BEING INVOLVED IN MARRYING A @ of gay/lesbian couples, SO BY LAW should have recused herself, for WILLFUL BIAS>
“Justices” like Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan rails against judges doing what she has done.
As for Roe v. Wade, the original decision was not just wrong, it was wrong-headed, something Kagan seems to have missed since she seems to be in favor of murdering babies.
Chief Justice John Roberts was on point earlier when he said; “Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court.”
The current SCOTUS set right what was done wrong in the original court ruling.
@Joe23006
Thank you for your directness and clarity. I’m not a young man by any stretch of the imagination, but I knew in 1973 that there was something fundamentally wrong with a decision that leveraged a woman’s alleged “right” to to murder a child, many times at government expense, on the grounds of her supposed right to privacy. How does that make sense. Additionally the law never established any any basis for the babies rights to be defended in any capacity as far as I know. Just my opinion, but with all the perfectly safe and accessible alternative means of birth control, it would seem to me that abortion imight be considered largely an issue of Government funded irresponsibility.
The supreme Court of the U.S. Does NOT rule on political policies.
The supreme Court of the U.S. Does rule on if a law or action IS Constitutional and follows the Constitution.
We appear to have a ruling political Party that does NOT follow or respect the SCOTUS, our Constitution or our laws.
To the ruling Democrats and their disciples, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History are all irrelevant, if the Democrats do not WANT to believe them or they disagree with them.
The Democrats will just make up their own, Gender, Truth, Facts, Reality and History to fit what they WANT to believe or fits into the Con or Deception that they are running at the time. 🙁 🙁 🙁
Kagan is a MORON like pretending president Touchy , Feely , Smelly and Gropy Biden and Heels in the Air or Knee Pads Ho Harris. Kagan is a Liberalturd and she doesn’t Care about anything other than Herself. Kagan , Biden , Harris are All in the same Boat Of Who Cares not THEE !
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes thoughtful, constitutionalists who care about the letter of the law before a wrong can be made right. That being said, there should be more care taken to show respect to our constitution. For too long, congress and the executive branch have been showing a decided, obvious disrespect for their third, COEQUAL branch of our federal government. The same disrespect that they continue to show to the people of our great country. FIX the damn border through concrete legislation. END phony birthright citizenship where people who are in our country illegally can have a child to ensure they won’t be deported and then bring their entire family. THEN, give the DACA citizens legal status – not automatic citizenship but end their fear of deportation and let them get in line like legal immigrants do. In other words, DO YOUR JOBS! Quit using hapless people as pawns for your own personal gains.
I’m still waiting to find out who the “leaker” was. It appears I’m going to have a VERY long wait.
At this rate, i fear we won’t EVER find out.
IMO Kagan & clerks are the Roe V Wade leakers. Now there is no doubt in my mind. She’s an activist Justice and always has been.
You think no amiga. I guess you have to be on the Supreme Court to know this. We commend people have NO ability or Intelligence to figure this one. I wonder if Elena can define a women. And some “justices” are nominated based solely on race and gender and thus have absolutely NO integrity. They have negative integrity.
This is the reason she was put on the Supreme Court. A idiot put on court by a traitor to destroy the American family and morals. Isn’t she the one sticking a gavel up her nose how many times? This woman is a disgrace and doesn’t belong on the Supreme Court.
I recall being astounded when Roe v. Wade was handed down. If precedent were gospel as Kagan wants, Plessy v. Ferguson would still be settled law. She only shows why she doesn’t belong on the Supreme Court.
SHE doesn’t belong on ANY Court. let alone the scotus.