BELLEVUE, Wash. — Liberal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan made clear Thursday that while the nation’s highest court leans heavily conservative, it is not simply doing the bidding of President Donald Trump.
Kagan, one of three liberal justices on the court, addressed an audience of attorneys and judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit in Bellevue, Washington. She said that on significant issues and at critical moments, “the court has checked the executive branch.”
To be sure, the court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration in most cases brought before it — including broadly backing his immigration crackdown and giving Trump expanded authority over federal regulatory agencies. Still, Kagan highlighted notable exceptions, pointing to rulings that struck down Trump’s sweeping tariff actions and blocked his attempts to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are here illegally.
“Is this court very conservative? Does it do a bunch of things that are out of the playbook of the conservative legal movement that I think are deeply wrong? You know, yes,” Kagan said. “But is this court the kind of puppet for the current administration? I think definitely not.”
Public confidence in the Supreme Court has fallen to historic lows in recent years, with critics suggesting the justices are driven by political motivations. Trump has personally attacked justices who have ruled against him. Another liberal justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, warned in May — after the court struck down a majority-Black district in Louisiana and weakened the Voting Rights Act — that the institution was at risk of being viewed as political.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the court’s liberal justices on some notable decisions including the birthright citizenship and tariff cases, has pushed back against the characterization of the justices as “political actors,” calling that view a misunderstanding.
Kagan, who is often regarded as someone who works to build consensus on the court, echoed that sentiment Thursday. Her remarks came one week after she testified before Congress alongside conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett on matters of court security and other institutional concerns.
Kagan also repeated her call for a panel of retired judges to oversee enforcement of the Supreme Court’s ethics code, which was adopted in 2023 amid widespread criticism over undisclosed travel and gifts received by some justices from wealthy donors. She said the justices take the code seriously but that there is disagreement among them about how — or even whether — it should be enforced, with no resolution reached yet.
Kagan also gave a firsthand account of one of the more unusual moments from the court’s recent term: Trump’s attendance at oral arguments over his birthright citizenship order, making him the first sitting president to attend such proceedings.
For the justices, it was largely a “non-event,” Kagan said. Trump sat in an area off to the side — a spot typically used by members of Congress and positioned well away from the bench — and the court made no formal acknowledgment of his presence. She noted that many people in the courtroom couldn’t even see him.
“He was just like a person who came in and sat down and then had to listen to an argument,” Kagan said.
Trump stayed for roughly half of the lengthy proceedings before departing when the opposing side began presenting its arguments.
“You really did kind of think, he probably has other things to do, you know?” said Kagan, who previously served as solicitor general during the Obama administration. “I was sort of thinking, I worked for a president, and when a president walks into the room, you get the whole ‘Hail to the Chief’ stuff. And there was like none of that. And so, I don’t know, I think he probably won’t come back.”
