Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Friday expressed her fear of the lack of a swing-vote on the court to fill the shoes of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor before him.
“In the last, really 30 years, starting with Justice O’Connor and continuing with Justice Kennedy, there has been a person who found the center or people couldn’t predict in that sort of way,” Kagan told a Princeton University conference for women. “That enabled the court to look as though it was not owned by one side or another and was indeed impartial and neutral and fair. It’s not so clear going forward. That sort of middle position, you know, it’s not so clear whether we’ll have it.”
Kagan made the comments after news broke that Judge Brett Kavanaugh had enough support to gain Senate confirmation in a Saturday vote.
“All of us need to be aware of that — every single one of us — and to realize how precious the court’s legitimacy is,” Kagan added. “It’s an incredibly important thing for the court to guard is this reputation of being impartial, being neutral and not being simply extension of a terribly polarizing process.”
Kagan spoke alongside fellow Obama appointee Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who along with Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer form the court’s liberal bloc.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan expressed concern over the court’s lack of a swing vote with Justice Anthony Kennedy’s departure from the bench https://t.co/BrlxQ5hTxk pic.twitter.com/9Ioduk9JaH
— CNN (@CNN) October 6, 2018