Kagan: SCOTUS Not Polarized, Two-Thirds of Decisions 9-0

Monday, speaking at the University of Chicago’s Politics Institute, Justice Elena Kagan said unlike it is often reported, the Supreme Court justices are very rarely divided along political partisan lines and do not have liberal or conservative “teams.”

Kagan said, “I think there is remarkably little sense of like, there are team or there are caucuses. Essentially none. You know, I think we try not to do anything that would suggest that. You know, we don’t meet those kinds of ways. It’s not like those guys are meeting in this room. The only time we meet is as a group, so really, when we meet it is as an entire group. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t some one on one conversations happening around the building. I think everybody tries really hard not to let it have that feel of, there are groups, or teams, or caucuses or what have you. I think people try really hard also to listen to each other and to learn from each other. You know, everybody focuses on the cases in which we are divided, and I don’t mean to say those aren’t important because we are divided on some  important issues, but remarkably, two-thirds of the time last year we agreed nine-zero.  Now that is unbelievable.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.