Justice Elena Kagan pushed back this week on criticism of the Supreme Court for ruling in favor of the Trump administration, citing the multiple instances in which the majority on the high court pushed back on President Donald Trump in several high-profile cases last term.
Kagan, who was appointed to the high court in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama, spoke to the judicial conference for the Ninth Circuit, the judicial circuit she is assigned to oversee, on Thursday evening, roughly a month after concluding a Supreme Court term dominated by several Trump cases. The high court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority, and Kagan is a part of the liberal minority, something she acknowledged in her remarks while also pushing back on accusations that the Supreme Court carries out Trump’s will.
“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, according to the Associated Press. “But is this court the kind of puppet for the current administration? I think definitely not.”
The Supreme Court handed Trump major losses in cases over his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs in February, his birthright citizenship executive order in June, and his bid to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The high court handed the president wins in cases involving his bid to end temporary protected status for Haiti and Syria and his ability to fire within the executive branch.
Trump became the first sitting president to attend Supreme Court oral arguments in April, when he sat in on arguments for the birthright citizenship case. Despite the historic attendance of the president, the Supreme Court session on April 1 went on as normal without any acknowledgment of Trump’s attendance or any apparent change in how the justices handled the case. Kagan told the Ninth Circuit judicial conference that the president’s attendance was a “non-event” for her and the other justices.
“He was just like a person who came in and sat down and then had to listen to an argument,” Kagan said, predicting the president would likely not return for another oral argument session in the coming terms.
While the high court has ruled against Trump several times in high-profile cases, with members of both the liberal and conservative sides of the bench handing him losses, a recent poll found that a plurality of people believe the Supreme Court based its rulings in Trump cases on politics. A Washington Post and Ipsos poll found that 46% of people say the Trump cases were decided by political agenda, while only 25% answering the cases were determined by the law itself.
Other justices have attempted to distance themselves from partisan accusations, especially in regard to cases involving the Trump administration. Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by then-President George W. Bush in 2005, earlier this year said that it is “absurd” to believe that the justices carry out the agendas of the presidents who appoint them.
“Certainly, I’ll always be grateful for President Bush for appointing me, and I’m sure all my colleagues are grateful there,” Roberts said. “But the idea that I’m carrying out — or they’re carrying out some different agendas. Really fallacious.”
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Trump has also pushed back on the idea the Supreme Court only hands him victories, taking aim at the justices for ruling against him in key cases several times this year. After the high court struck down his sweeping tariffs, he held a lengthy press conference at the White House, during which he criticized the six justices in the majority for the adverse decision.
The Supreme Court concluded its term at the end of last month and will begin its next term with oral arguments on Oct. 5. The upcoming Supreme Court term already has several notable cases set for argument, including cases about “assault weapons” bans and Colorado barring Catholic preschools from its universal preschool program.