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Justice Kagan claims Supreme Court rulings are underdermining democracy

Justice Kagan claims Supreme Court rulings are underdermining democracy


Justice Kagan claims Supreme Court rulings are underdermining democracy

WASHINGTON — Justice Elena Kagan on Tuesday claimed voting and elections decisions from her conservative Supreme Court colleagues have helped make the country more politically polarized and less democratic.

In a speech two weeks before the pivotal midterm elections for control of Congress, the liberal-leaning justice sharply criticized how the majority’s rulings have affected the nation’s political environment.

“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,” she said during a talk before students and professors at Catholic University's law school in Washington, D.C.

“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.”

The court’s majority, for its part, said in a 2019 ruling that courts drawing voting districts for maximum advantage is a political dispute and federal courts can’t step in. Conservatives have separately ruled that key campaign finance regulations violate the freedom of speech.