Ahead of Midterms, Elena Kagan Says the Supreme Court Is Undermining Voting Rights

Elena Kagan, associate justice of the U.S.

Supreme Court, attends a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing in Washington, D.C., on July 14, 2026. —Aaron Schwartz—Bloomberg via Getty Images Liberal Justice Elena Kagan has accused the Supreme Court ’s conservative majority of undermining democracy and creating a more polarized electorate through a series of key rulings that have affected the nature of elections ahead of the midterms .

“The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effect of their rulings on how the political system works,” Kagan said while speaking to students and faculty at Catholic University’s law school in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

She went on to say that the conservative justices have “created a democracy that does not work as well as it should.” Kagan—who was nominated to the bench in 2010 by President Barack Obama—referenced specific rulings that have had a large impact on electoral maps, campaign finance, and executive authority.

Experts tell TIME that these rulings have affected the midterm elections and could, in turn, change the fate of Congress.

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Where Is the Money Coming From? “It's no exaggeration to say that the form of our elections and democracy owes a great deal to the decisions of the Supreme Court, sometimes overruling the will of Congress,” says Rick Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles law school and the director of its Safeguarding Democracy Project.

In fact, he believes Kagan’s remarks do not go far enough in their criticism.

“You're going to hear more voices calling for the Supreme Court to be changed, either by adding more justices, putting in term limits, or doing other things,” he says.

The outcome of the midterm elections might have some influence on these issues going forward, though there are limits to what Congress can accomplish regardless of who controls the majority in the years ahead.

How Supreme Court rulings may affect the 2026 midterms Kagan’s comments outline how the high court’s rulings have impacted this year’s elections.

She pointed to Louisiana v.

Callais , which concerned whether Louisiana had to draw a second congressional district where Black voters made up a majority—giving them a greater chance to elect their preferred candidate.

In April, the Supreme Court struck down that map and made it harder to challenge maps that weaken minority voters’ influence.