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By Sophia Cia
For The Times of Trenton
In this divisive time, impartiality, neutrality and fairness are incredibly important to guard, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Friday evening.
Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, both Princeton University graduates, spoke at speaking at the university’s “She Roars” event.
The justices discussed the role of the country’s high court hours after the first U.S. Senate vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“Part of the court’s strength and legitimacy depends on people not seeing the court in the way that people see other governing structures,” says Kagan, “(The court should be seen) not an extension of politics but somehow above the fray.”
She points out that in the last thirty years — starting with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and continuing with Justice Anthony Kennedy — there has been a person who has “found the center,” making the Supreme Court appear impartial, neutral and fair.
“I think going forward, that sort of middle position — it’s not so clear whether we’ll have it,” Kagan says, “and every single one of us needs to be aware of that and to realize how precious the court’s legitimacy is.”
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Sotomayor highlighted the “understanding between the eight of us to rise above the partisanship in our personal relationships–that we have to treat each other with respect and dignity and a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn’t often share.”
She points to Justice Kagan’s relationship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia and her own recent collaboration with Justice Neil Gorsuch to promote civic education across the country.
“Our openness about respecting one another is an example that’s important for us to both maintain and promote,” Sotomayor said.
She recognizes, however, that accommodating differences in their judicial approaches proves much more difficult.
“Part of the politicization of the court has come about because our political parties have adopted the academic discussion that judges were having for the longest time about how to interpret laws of the constitution,” Sotomayor said.
These differences in fundamental constitutional interpretation are what lead to the five to four decisions that the public seems to think are divisive, she said. “To the extent that we can avoid ruling in such expansive ways to as foreclose conversation, I think we have a chance of holding onto our legitimacy.”
Said Kagan: “We don’t have an army. We don’t have any money. The only way we get people to do what we say they should do is that to get people to respect us and respect our fairness, especially in this time.”
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