It only took three years, but Associate Justice Elena Kagan finally found it within herself to condemn leftist threats against her Republican-appointed colleagues — and it’s not hard to guess why.
Speaking at a judicial conference in California on Thursday, the Obama appointee discussed the “threats to personal safety” and an “endangerment of judges.” She specifically referenced the (leftist-led) threats and demonstrations that came about following the leak of the high court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
“That’s something that my court dealt with … a few years ago when Dobbs came down. When some of my colleagues, like my colleagues on the majority side, were confronted with protests outside their houses, including houses with children in them,” Kagan said, while also mentioning the gunman arrested for attempting to assassinate Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“That is scary stuff,” she added.
It’s nice to see Kagan criticize the threats and attacks against her Republican-appointed colleagues. It would have been even nicer had she emphatically done so back when it mattered.
As not-so-subtly indicated by Kagan herself during Thursday’s conference, the real reason for her sudden outspokenness on the issue appears to be her anger with President Trump and conservatives’ verbal criticisms of left-wing activists and judges’ weaponization of the legal system to stymie the president’s policy agenda.
Speaking in general terms, Kagan acknowledged that judges are “fair game for all kinds of criticism, strong criticism, pointed criticism, but vilifying judges … is a step beyond and ought to be understood as such.” The Obama appointee subsequently encouraged judges not to allow such pressures — which she dutifully classified as “threats” — to affect their jurisprudence.
“In the face of these sorts of threats to an independent judiciary, judges just need to do what they are obligated to do, which is to do law in the best way they know how to do, make independent, reasoned judgments based on precedent, based on other law, to not be inhibited by any of these threats,” she said.
Kagan’s remarks echo comments issued by her fellow Democrat-appointed colleagues, Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In what she called an “act of solidarity,” Sotomayor appeared at an event hosted by the left-wing American Bar Association in May, during which she encouraged attendees to “stand up and be heard.”
“Right now we can’t lose the battles we’re facing,” Sotomayor said, seemingly referencing conservatives’ critiques of leftists’ judicial coup.
Jackson espoused similar sentiments while speaking at a judicial conference in Puerto Rico that same month. While not referencing Trump by name, the Biden appointee hyperbolically claimed, “The threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of government. And they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.”
All three Democrat appointees dissented in the high court’s recent Trump v. CASA decision. In that case, the majority deemed that nationwide (or “universal”) injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts,” restricting lower courts’ ability to universally block a specific law or policy for the entire country.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
