Elena Kagan seen with 'pained expression' during recent hearing with colleagues: report
As the Supreme Court winds down its latest session, court observers have noticed increasing tension and weariness as the divisions among the justices increasingly become more apparent in their written opinions.
According to a report from CNN's longtime Supreme Court correspondent Joan Biskupiuc, recent hearings have gone on twice as long as usual as several justices have shown signs of exasperation with each other on a court that has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Case in point, she noted, "During their last two weeks of oral arguments, the anger among justices on both sides of the bench was obvious to lawyers and others who regularly attend. They sounded testy and looked weary. During the scheduled one-hour hearings that often ran twice as long, several justices held their heads in hands. Alito rolled his eyes. Elena Kagan wore a pained expression. Clarence Thomas rubbed his face. In some cases, when Ketanji Brown Jackson, the junior justice, posed her final queries at the end of a clean-up round of questioning, most of the others didn’t look her way."
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According to Biskupic, the justices still have at least a dozen cases before them requiring rulings before the court takes off until October and the stress appears to be getting to everyone as Chief Justice John Roberts struggles "to win unanimity" between warring court factions.
"The current strife is no doubt exacerbated by the unprecedented ideological split of contemporary times," she wrote. "Since the six-justice conservative bloc coalesced in late 2020, it has been driving changes in American life – including the end of constitutional abortion rights – and is likely to further transform the law in cases to be issued through the end of June," she wrote before adding that Justice Sam Alito's controversial majority opinions, as well as his ongoing ethical issues, is also casting a pall over the court."
"Alito has been under new scrutiny because of controversial flags flown at his residences in Virginia and New Jersey that suggest sympathy with people who protested Joe Biden’s election win over Trump in 2020. He has declined to respond to questions about a potential conflict of interest, as the justices are weighing two cases arising from Trump-related 'Stop the Steal' activities," she wrote.
You can read more of Biskupic's analysis here.