Justice Elena Kagan, after decade on bench, emerges as Supreme Court 'bridge-builder'
WASHINGTON – The day before Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to take the seat next to hers at the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Elena Kagan publicly fretted over the institution's future.
Her fear had less to do with the bitter partisanship that marked Kavanaugh's 2018 nomination than it did the retirement of his predecessor, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose penchant for being the swing vote had extended the court's decades-long reputation for being, in Kagan's words, "impartial and neutral and fair."
But in its two terms since then, the court has maintained most of its luster as the least political branch of the federal government. It has handed President Donald Trump and the conservative legal movement several major defeats and limited the impact of their victories.
Chief Justice John Roberts gets most of the credit, or blame, for that transition. But the strategic influence of Kagan, President Barack Obama's second Supreme Court nominee a decade ago, can be seen in many of the unexpected rulings and in the court's ability, in her words, to remain "somehow above the fray."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/associate-justice-elena-kagan-decade-090015242.html
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