Justice Kagan: Bickering Politicians Make Justices Look Like 'Junior Varsity'

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said that politicians who argue over vacancies on the court make the justices seem to be "junior varsity."

"That’s an unfortunate thing because it makes the world think we are sort of junior varsity politicians. I think that’s not the way we think of ourselves, even given the fact that we disagree and that we disagree sometimes in ways that you can predict, based on what kind of a president appointed us," Kagan said Wednesday to a group of students from the University of Chicago, The Chicago Maroon reported.

Kagan noted that partisan differences over the court has increased with the last four Supreme Court nominees, including herself, all of them only receiving a few votes from members of the opposite party.

"There’s so much tit-for-that that goes on in these processes. Everybody has their list of times that they’ve been wronged. The Republicans have their list, and the Democrats have their list, and they seem to be over time ratcheting up the level of conflict rather than trying to find ways to ratchet it down," Kagan said.

"That’s, long-term, I think, very unhealthy for the court, and that’s something all of us wish we could get away from," Kagan said to the students.

The justice did not mention nominee Brett Kavanaugh during the talk. Kagan hired him to teach at the Harvard Law School when she was dean.

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