Kagan Says Supreme Court Rulings Since 2019 Deepened Polarization Ahead of Midterms
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 21
Kagan Says Supreme Court Rulings Since 2019 Deepened Polarization Ahead of Midterms
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 21
Summary
Justice Elena Kagan said the court’s conservative majority has made U.S. democracy work less well through election rulings she says intensified polarization, speaking two weeks before closely contested midterm elections.
Kagan tied that damage to decisions that loosened campaign-finance limits, allowed partisan gerrymandering to escape federal court review and weakened major voting-rights protections.
The 2019 ruling barring federal challenges to partisan maps, she said, triggered a bipartisan “race to the bottom” in redistricting that advantages whichever party controls the process.
Her remarks at Catholic University went beyond case-by-case dissents, amounting to a broad indictment of how the court’s election jurisprudence has reshaped the political system.