Justice Elena Kagan says Supreme Court’s conservative majority weakened democracy

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan sharply criticized the Court’s recent decisions in cases affecting voting rights and campaign finance, saying that the conservative majority’s rulings had harmed democracy and led to partisan gerrymanders that deprived “masses of citizens of their right to voting equality.”

“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 remarks just two weeks before the 2026 midterm elections.

Kagan made the statements during a public talk at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law on Oct. 20, according to multiple news outlets that reported from the event. 

In particular, the liberal justice pointed to the Court’s polarizing decision this April in Louisiana v. Callais, which demolished provisions of the landmark Voting Rights Act and made it easier for states to gerrymander and undermine the voting power of minorities.

“I think what you saw, like literally in the few weeks after that decision was announced, was that a large number of Southern states decided to redistrict in order to get rid of Black districts,” Kagan said.

In her dissent from the April decision, Kagan accused the majority of making changes that “eviscerate the law.” 

Kagan said election law was “just about the most important thing that the Court does,” describing voting rights as “foundational.” 

She also took aim at the Court’s 2019 decision that federal judges cannot throw out congressional maps for being too partisan. Kagan said that ruling had resulted in both political parties engaging in a “race to the bottom” in terms of partisan gerrymandering, a phenomenon that she called “very destructive of our democracy.”

These gerrymanders are “effectively depriving masses of citizens of their right to voting equality, driving people away from the center towards the wings, towards the extremes,” she said.

Nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010, Kagan is one of three Democratic appointees on the nine-member bench. She has consistently dissented as her conservative colleagues have gutted voting rights protections over the years. 

During her remarks at Catholic University, Kagan also criticized the Court’s campaign finance rulings, saying they have opened the door to corruption. 

“The people of America look around this political system and think that all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare,” she said. “And they’re right.”