Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Friday that she worries the Supreme Court will now lack a justice who could serve as a swing-vote
Kagan said, during a conference for women at Princeton University on Friday, that for the last three decades there has always been a figure on the high court, starting with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and continuing with Justice Anthony Kennedy, that acted as a swing vote. She spoke alongside Justice Sonia Sotomayor during the press conference, The Hill reported.
"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," Kagan said.
Kagan said she is not sure if the high court will ever have a justice who is in the middle position moving forward.
"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 during the conference. "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's comments came just a few hours after President Trump's SCOTUS nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh received enough votes from the Senate to be confirmed into the Supreme Court. On Friday, the Senate voted to end the debate on Kavanaugh's nomination into the high court, setting up for a final vote on his nomination on Saturday.
The vote comes just a week after Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault by three women. Christine Blasey Ford, one of Kavanaugh's accusers, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding claims that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her during a high school party in the 1980's.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced on Friday that she would vote for Kavanaugh. Her vote gave Kavanaugh enough support to be confirmed.
Attorney Michael Avenatti, who is representing Julie Swetnick, one of the women who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, tweeted on Friday that Collins was mirroring President Trump and called her speech "disingenuous and shameful."
"@SenatorCollins is channeling Donald Trump. Entirely disingenuous and shameful. Where was she when Judge Garland could not even get an up or down vote? This is all about her post-office job opportunities on K street. We shall never forget. Not in Nov. Not in 2020. Not ever," Avenatti tweeted on Friday.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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