Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan forcefully dismissed the notion that the nation's highest court has become a mere appendage of the Trump administration, even as its conservative majority delivers rulings that align with the president's agenda. Speaking at a judicial conference hosted by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Bellevue, Washington, on Thursday, Kagan insisted the court has maintained its independence by checking executive power in several high-profile cases.
“I don't see this as a court that is just like, 'We're just going to rubber stamp what the current administration does.' You know, quite the opposite,” Kagan said. “I think that that is a bad rap.”
The liberal justice acknowledged that the court is deeply conservative and has produced outcomes she finds objectionable, including rulings that she said “eviscerated” the Voting Rights Act. But she drew a clear line between ideological conservatism and subservience to the president. “Is this court very conservative? Does it do a bunch of things that are out of the playbook of the conservative legal movement that I think are deeply wrong? You know, yes,” Kagan said. “But is this court the kind of puppet for the current administration? I think definitely not.”
Kagan pointed to the court's invalidation of Trump's sweeping tariffs as one of the most significant rebukes of a sitting president in recent memory. “Tariffs are probably the key policy issue for this president. I mean, something he campaigned on, he ran on, he cared an enormous amount about,” she said. “I don't think that there are all that many decisions in the recent times, where a court strikes down such an important policy to a sitting president.”
She also noted the court's rejection of Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented migrants. The president attended oral arguments in that case earlier this year, marking the first time a sitting president has appeared before the court. Kagan described the event as unremarkable, saying Trump “was just like a person who came in and sat down and then had to listen to an argument,” adding that many in the audience could not see him.
Kagan acknowledged she disagrees with many recent decisions, but she rejected the idea that the court is acting as an arm of the administration. “You just have to deal with the fact that there's a conservative court doing things that conservative jurists have long thought it appropriate to do, and I can really dislike that. But it has nothing to do, I think, with becoming the arm of this current administration,” she said.
The justice's remarks come amid heightened scrutiny of the court's relationship with the executive branch, especially as the Trump administration pushes forward on controversial policies. For more on the administration's foreign policy moves, see Trump's linkage of a Saudi nuclear deal to Israel normalization. Meanwhile, legal battles continue over executive actions, including a lawsuit by Democratic states challenging FEMA grant conditions tied to elections and immigration.
Kagan's defense of the court's independence underscores the tension between its conservative majority and the perception that it is beholden to the president. As the court prepares to rule on more cases involving Trump's agenda, the debate over its role is likely to intensify.
