Photo: Steve Petteway, photographer for the Supreme Court of the United States / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Developing story
Justice Elena Kagan said recent Supreme Court rulings on district maps, campaign money and voting rights have helped create a democracy that does not work as well as it should, according to Fox News. She also pushed back on the idea that the court simply backs President Donald Trump’s agenda.
According to a Fox News article released Oct. 22, 2026, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan argued that the conservative majority’s recent decisions are weakening democracy. She delivered these comments in a private session with professors and students at Catholic University’s law school in Washington, D.C.
Kagan, a liberal appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010, said the court had “created a democracy that doesn’t work as well as it should.”
She cited the 2019 Rucho v. Common Cause decision, where she was in the minority. Fox noted that the ruling prevented federal courts from striking down districts simply because they give one party an unfair advantage. Kagan described it as the start of a “race to the bottom,” asserting that gerrymandered districts are pushing people “toward the extremes.”
She also criticized rulings from the previous term, according to Fox. These included the court’s decision limiting campaign finance restrictions and a ruling that made majority-minority congressional districts harder to draw under the Voting Rights Act.
Fox reports the court struck down federal caps on coordinated spending between candidates and state or national parties. In her dissent, Kagan argued the limits were needed to stop wealthy donors from working around direct contribution caps. She said the ruling lets a party act as an “alternative checking account” for a candidate.
Kagan said the court was in a better place when it was more ideologically balanced. She also pushed back on the claim that the court rubber-stamps Trump’s agenda. She cited earlier rulings that rejected birthright citizenship restrictions, tariffs and Trump’s limits on mail-in voting.
Fox reported the discussion came weeks into the court’s new term and less than two weeks before the midterm elections. According to Fox, the court is expected to rule on the scope of gun rights and on state election integrity laws this term.
Fox did not say when the event took place. The account comes from a single outlet, and a full record of the remarks was not provided.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Sources
What it means for you
- If the court rules as Fox expects this term, decisions on the scope of gun rights and on state election integrity laws will be among its major cases.
- With Republican state lawmakers pushing for new congressional maps and Democratic-led states redrawing their own, Fox reports ongoing lawsuits and court battles, which could keep map fights in the news around the midterm elections.
- Because the court struck down federal limits on coordinated party spending last term, parties and candidates could coordinate spending without those limits.