WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Monday cautioned that courts look political and forfeit legitimacy when they needlessly overturn precedent and decide more than they have to.Speaking less than three months after a five-justice conservative majority overturned Roe v.
Wade's constitutional guarantee of abortion access, Kagan said the public's view of the court can be damaged especially when changes in its membership lead to big changes in the law.State by state: Abortion laws across the U.S.She stressed that she was not talking about any particular decision or even a string of rulings with which she disagreed.Still, her remarks were similar to points made in dissenting opinions she wrote or contributed to in recent months, including in the abortion case."Judges create legitimacy problems for themselves ...
when they instead stray into places where it looks like they’re an extension of the political process or when they’re imposing their own personal preferences," Kagan said at Temple Emanu-El in New York.
The event was livestreamed.Associate Justice Elena Kagan stands during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on April 23, 2021.