Justice Brett Kavanaugh defends Supreme Court as 'institution of law not of politics'

WASHINGTON –Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday defended the Supreme Court against criticism from progressive Democrats, asserting that the nation's highest court is "an institution of law not of politics."

Democrats have slammed the high court in recent weeks for a series of 6-3 decisions handed down in the final days of its term that gutted affirmation action, ended President Joe Biden’s $400 billion student debt relief plan and allowed a graphic designer to deny making websites celebrating same-sex weddings.

“The court is an institution of law. It’s an institution of law not of politics, not of partisanship,” Kavanaugh said at a judicial conference in Minnesota, according to the Associated Press.

“We have lived up, in my estimation, to deciding cases based on law and not based on partisan affiliation and partisanship,” Kavanaugh said. “We don’t caucus in separate rooms. We don’t meet separately. We’re not sitting on different sides of the aisle at an oral argument. … We work as a group of nine.”

It was the first public remarks of any justice since the 2022-2023 term ended late last month. Members of the court regularly fan out and speak to judicial conferences over the summer.

The Supreme Court has veered to the right since President Donald Trump named three nominees – Kavanaugh along with Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. That movement became clear for many Americans last year when the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that established a nationwide right to abortion.

This term there were fewer cases decided on 6-3 ideological splits: Five compared with 14 last term, according to an analysis by the blog Empirical SCOTUS. Kavanaugh was in the majority in 96% of this term’s decisions, more than any other justice.

Despite wins for the court’s liberal wing – including two significant voting cases – the court’s critics have focused on the most closely watched cases that landed in late June, including the affirmative action and student loan decisions. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., last month described the court as a “MAGA-captured Supreme Court.”

Kavanaugh only briefly mentioned the ethics issues that have dogged some justices — including conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and the liberal Sonia Sotomayor. He noted that Chief Justice John Roberts said in May that the justices were continuing to work on that as a group.

“That’s accurate,” he said. “I’m not going to add anything to what the chief justice has said on that topic.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kavanaugh defends Supreme Court as Dems see politics in final rulings