What Justice Elena Kagan Gets Wrong About Democracy
22nd October 2026
Take Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, for instance. She suggested that the majority decisions of her conservative colleagues are undermining American democracy, citing cases involving gerrymandering, money in politics, and other decisions that give the president more authority over the administrative state.
“The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effect of their rulings on how the political system works and has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should,” the justice, nominated by President Barack Obama, said at Catholic University’s law school Tuesday night, Courthouse News reported.
“Over the last couple of years especially, both political parties have been engaged in a race to the bottom in terms of doing these partisan gerrymanders, … making what I think is unfortunately a too-polarized country even more so,” she said. “The people of America look around and think that all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare, and they’re right.”
Kagan also reportedly criticized the majority for “clearing the way for President Donald Trump and other presidents to remove the heads of agencies that Congress set up to be independent of the chief executive,” The Washington Post reported.
Yet these decisions arguably return political power to elected officials and voters, restoring accountability and weakening the influence of judges, bureaucrats, and other unelected actors.