Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday that one of the major challenges facing the federal judiciary today is the possibility of government officials defying court orders.
The comments from Kagan, one of three liberal members on the high court, come as the Trump administration has been accused of flouting orders from lower courts.
“This idea that litigants, and most especially here I’m talking about government officials, needn’t obey the dictates of courts. Needn’t obey court orders. And you know that just is not the way our system works, not the way rule of law in this country works,” Kagan said during a wide-ranging conversation before an audience of judges and lawyers at the 9th US Circuit Judicial Conference as she discussed several things she thought presented a challenge to the nation’s federal court system.
She continued: “And that’s true for the Supreme Court, and it’s also true for every district court, unless and until an appellate court or the Supreme Court says otherwise — that judicial orders are judicial orders and need to be respected.”
Among the other issues Kagan said are facing her colleagues in the judiciary are threats to their personal safety and the way people talk about judges in the US. She pointed to a rare statement Chief Justice John Roberts issued earlier this year after President Donald Trump called for judges who ruled against him to be impeached.
“Judges are fair game for all kinds of criticism: strong criticism, pointed criticism. But vilifying judges in that way is a step beyond and ought to be understood as such,” Kagan said at the event in Monterey, California.
The administration has been accused of skirting court orders in a range of cases, but judges have largely avoided pursuing contempt proceedings against officials.
The issue reached new heights last month after a fired Justice Department lawyer who worked on immigration cases filed a whistleblower complaint that claimed a top DOJ official crudely told others in the department to ignore court orders before a controversial immigration enforcement situation in March.
Emil Bove, the official accused of making the comments, has denied the allegations. The US Senate is currently considering whether to confirm him to a lifetime appointment on a Philadelphia-based federal appeals court.
