Justice Kagan cautions Supreme Court can forfeit legitimacy

By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is cautioning that courts look political and forfeit legitimacy when they needlessly overturn precedent and decide more than they have to. Kagan’s comments come less than three months after a five-justice conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade’s constitutional guarantee of abortion access. Kagan says the public’s view of the court can be damaged especially when changes in its membership lead to big changes in the law. In remarks Monday at Temple Emanu-El in New York, she stressed that she was not talking about any particular decision or even a string of rulings with which she disagreed. She struck a different tone from Chief Justice John Roberts, who has consistently defended the court’s legitimacy.