Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Tuesday that voting and campaign finance rulings by the court’s conservative majority have weakened U.S. democracy and deepened political polarization, two weeks before the midterm elections, according to ABC News US.
Kagan, a liberal justice, spoke at Catholic University’s law school in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 20, according to the Straits Times. She said voting and elections decisions by the conservative majority have helped make the country more politically polarized and less democratic, ABC News US reported.
According to NBC News, Kagan said the court "has blinded itself to the very deleterious effect of their rulings" and has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should. She also said both parties have been in a "race to the bottom" on partisan gerrymandering. She linked this to the court’s 2019 ruling that federal courts cannot step in, NBC News reported.
Kagan dissented from rulings that weakened the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance limits, according to the Straits Times. The court’s June decision struck down a cap on party spending with candidate input, the Straits Times reported.
Kagan also said the court has pushed back on President Donald Trump in areas including tariffs, birthright citizenship and mail ballots, and that it is not a rubber stamp for the president, according to ABC News US.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Kagan is an appointee of former Democratic president Barack Obama.
The redistricting dispute has a wider backdrop. According to Reuters via the Straits Times, after a 2026 ruling narrowed the Voting Rights Act, Republican-led states redrew Southern districts that had Black-majority or near-Black-majority voters. The Straits Times also reported that Texas redrew its map in 2025 at Trump’s urging, and that California then reconfigured its map to target Republican-held seats.
Sources differ on how far the court weakened the Voting Rights Act this year. ABC News US says the court "further narrowed" its protections. NBC News and the Straits Times describe the ruling as having "gutted" the Act, a term that comes from Kagan.
The sources do not include any response from the court, the conservative justices or Trump to Kagan’s remarks. They also do not give case names, vote counts, or independent figures on how many districts have been affected by redistricting. The ABC News US excerpt appears truncated, and Kagan’s claims about donor corruption and the effects of rulings are her opinion, not independently verified.
The midterm elections are set for Nov. 3. Republicans are seeking to keep their slim House majorities amid ongoing redistricting fights.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.