{"id":6362,"date":"2026-07-15T03:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6362"},"modified":"2026-07-15T03:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:59:23","slug":"kagan-and-barrett-go-to-the-hill-three-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6362","title":{"rendered":"Kagan and Barrett Go to the Hill: Three Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n\n\n<p>Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett made a rare appearance before congressional appropriators Tuesday as the Supreme Court seeks an increased security budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Court decisions were off limits during the Senate and House hearings, but the testimony still produced a few striking moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h2-cd96a792-5144-4011-8b6b-362258564ffa\"><strong>1) The Bizarre Power of Politeness Protects Trump From Accountability\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>It was surreal to sit through four hours of hearings on a \u201cheightened threat environment\u201d in which President Donald Trump was only sparingly mentioned. And when a Democrat would invoke Trump, the justices would backpedal onto safer terrain.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>A typical episode:\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) (after reading a series of Trump\u2019s insults of the justices): \u201cIf there\u2019s anyone in the country that commands more attention, it\u2019s the president and I think that behavior is very dangerous to the Court and to our whole system.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Justice Elena Kagan: \u201cWherever these come from \u2014 whatever political figure says them, whatever party that political figure is a member of \u2014 these statements are really unhelpful. They\u2019re dangerous in terms of individual justices\u2019 security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In her opening statement, she referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection obliquely as \u201cevents at the Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Kagan, a member of a body still pretending to be nonpartisan, would never criticize Trump directly in this kind of setting. But the whole charade highlighted the internal social code that so baffles and infuriates Democratic voters. In a congressional hearing featuring the esteemed justices, members will be cordial and the justices cosseted. They\u2019ll all pretend that the beefing up of judges\u2019 security since 2016 is random, that a president who frequently attacks the justices in personal terms \u2014 something no president had ever done before \u2014 does not poison the general populace.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h2-f1124eb6-c6de-4cbd-8d64-1ce967ba4cd8\"><strong>2) Dems Fixated on the Shadow Docket, Ethics Reform\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Several Democrats questioned Kagan and Barrett on the shadow docket and the Court\u2019s increased reliance on it.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The closest Kagan got to piercing the nonpartisan veil came in a quip about the flood of emergency petitions filed in the Trump era.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>As to \u201cwhy are all these people are coming to us when they didn\u2019t in the past,\u201d she said that it\u2019s partly \u201cbecause people see that there\u2019s at least potential to grant relief, so why not file a petition?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>A large portion of the flood of emergency petitions comes from right-wing litigants attempting to leapfrog lower courts in search of a friendlier audience. And the Court has often rewarded that strategy, granting interim relief even if it ultimately decides against the right-wing argument.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Many Democratic members also pressed the justices on an enforcement mechanism for their ethics code. Kagan said that she still supports one; Barrett demurred, citing the difficulty in deciding who would adjudicate. It was strange to watch Kagan and Barrett field questions about the Court\u2019s porous ethical boundaries and testify to the justices\u2019 commitment to them given the breathtaking corruption of their colleagues Justices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow\" target=\"_blank\">Clarence Thomas<\/a> and, to a slightly lesser degree, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\">Samuel Alito<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The hearings were conspicuously devoid of discussion of more serious Court reform, including expansion or judicial term limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h2-5884ebfc-a5dc-47ee-9118-0c62f2f355a9\"><strong>3) Barrett Revealed a Particularly Gruesome Intimidation Tactic<\/strong><\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>While talking about the threats she\u2019s faced, including a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcwashington.com\/news\/national-international\/justice-amy-coney-barrett-home-targeted-apparent-swatting-incident\/4109849\/\" target=\"_blank\">swatting attack<\/a> in late May, Barrett said that many pizzas and packages sent to the justices\u2019 homes bear the name \u201cDaniel Anderl,\u201d the son of federal Judge Esther Salas who was killed in 2020 by a self-described anti-feminist lawyer looking to kill his mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett made a rare appearance before congressional appropriators Tuesday as the Supreme Court seeks an increased security budget.\u00a0 Court decisions were off limits during the Senate and House hearings, but the testimony still produced a few striking moments.\u00a0 1) The Bizarre Power of Politeness Protects Trump From Accountability\u00a0 It&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285440164.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}