Posted on 10/05/2018 7:01:04 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Friday she fears the high court may lack a justice going forward who would serve as a swing-vote on cases, speaking hours after President Trump's second nominee Brett Kavanaugh secured enough votes to be confirmed.
Kagan said at a conference for women at Princeton University that over the past three decades, starting with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and continuing with Justice Anthony Kennedy, that there was a figure on the bench "who found the center or people couldn't predict in that sort of way."
“It’s not so clear, that I think going forward, that sort of middle position — it's not so clear whether we’ll have it," Kagan said.
"All of us need to be aware of that — every single one of us — and to realize how precious the court’s legitimacy is," she added. "It's an incredibly important thing for the court to guard is this reputation of being impartial, being neutral and not being simply extension of a terribly polarizing process."
Kagan, an appointee of former President Obama, spoke Friday alongside fellow Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who also hails from the Supreme Court's liberal bloc.
Justice Elena Kagan: "In the last, really 30 years, starting with Justice O'Connor and continuing with Justice Kennedy, there has been a person who found the center or people couldn't predict in that sort of way."
— The Hill (@thehill) October 6, 2018 Her comments came hours after it became clear that Kavanaugh, Trump's pick to succeed the retiring Kennedy, had enough votes to be confirmed.
Kennedy cast the deciding vote on several high-profile cases before the Supreme Court, and his retirement announcement earlier this year left many on the left voicing concerns that the court would lack a swing-vote going forward.
The Senate voted earlier Friday to end debate on Kavanaugh's nomination, setting up a final vote on his nomination for Saturday afternoon, capping off weeks of controversy surrounding allegations of sexual assault.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced Friday that she would vote for Kavanaugh, giving him enough support to get confirmed. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is running for reelection this year in a state Trump won by 42 points in 2016, also said he would vote for Kavanaugh.
The announcements came about a week after Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, his first accuser, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Ford's claims that he sexually assaulted her at a high school party in the early 1980s.
Kavanaugh fiercely denied the accusation. He's also denied sexual misconduct claims from multiple other women, Julie Swetnick and Deborah Ramirez.
GOP senators said earlier this week that an FBI probe into Kavanaugh found no corroboration for sexual misconduct allegations against him. Democratic senators have blasted the investigation, calling it inadequate.
This remark astonishes me——she seems to want to give a tremendous amount of power to ONE justice.
.
Elections have consequences and this one was for all the marbles. Thank God we were blessed with Donald Trump, an unselfish, hard driving genius.
Obviously, Kagan has no clue about the constitution or the SCOTUS. But we all knew that going in, including the idiot that appointed her.
Kagan and Sotomayor are invalid appointments. Made by a marxist muslim usurper. It’s time to remove those ceckless communist funts from the bench.
Wonder how she will feel once RBG is replaced!
Plain and simple, she exposed herself as a partisan, and she herself undermines the legitimacy of the leftist justices on the high court.
The concept of a “swing vote” means someone who doesn’t only vote her political opinion. What an admission.
She can swing. Hang her high.
So for roughly 200 years then there was no “swing” vote... and that’s a problem, that it won’t have one now???
Silly
Ya...think???
Look closely. It’s a younger butch lesbo Chuck Schumer.
Just where in the Constitution is there anything that says there should be a swing vote? Is it in the same place as the provision for penumbra, privacy, and abortion?
Does she even contemplate that there could possibly be 9 conservative origionalists on the Supreme Court?
Swing vote? What a total ass!
So Kagan has admitted SHE is a doctrinaire leftist who does not consider each case objectively.
Leave b!+ch!
Luckily the SC still has 2 dykes /sarc
“Another giant SH*T on America by Odunga Hussein, the Indonesian Muslim”
Yup.
In my opinion Kagan ‘The Wise Latina’ is the one who does not have a judicial temperament. In fact the hag is breaking longstanding Supreme Court custom by remarking upon and getting politics about a Supreme Court nominee before during the Senate confirmation process.
Yes, you still do.
Roberts.
That’s for dang sure!
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