Some commentators have suggested that the Supreme Court has frequently sided with or affirmed the Trump Administration's positions. However, in recent remarks before the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference on Thursday, July 24th, 2026, Justice Elena Kagan rejected this common narrative.

Kagan, a liberal justice appointed by President Obama, stated, "I don't see this as a court that is just like, 'We're just going to rubber stamp what the current administration does.' You know, quite the opposite."

She highlighted the Court's 6-3 decision striking down Trump's tariffs as "extraordinary," noting that tariffs were a key policy issue for President Trump, something he campaigned on and cared deeply about. Kagan emphasized that the Court's actions were not about becoming "the arm of this current administration."

Regarding President Trump's attendance at oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case—a matter of major importance to him—Kagan said the justices were unaffected. She described the event as "sort of like… from the court's point of view, a non-event," adding, "You really did kind of think he probably had other things to do."

Kagan also acknowledged that even dissenting justices raised questions about the breadth of the Trump Administration's position in that case, further underscoring the Court's independence.

"You just have to deal with the fact that there's a conservative court doing things that conservative jurists have long thought it appropriate to do, and I can really dislike that. But it has nothing to do, I think, with becoming the arm of this current administration," she said.

These remarks challenge the conventional liberal perspective that the Supreme Court has been overly deferential to the Trump Administration.

Sources