Bonus 94: Justice Kagan's Remarks at the Ninth Circuit Conference

The headline isn't just *what* Justice Kagan said at July's Ninth Circuit meeting in Sacramento; it's that she chose to say it, publicly, in the first place

Welcome back to the weekly bonus content for “One First.” Although Monday’s regular newsletter will remain free for as long as I’m able to do this, much of the bonus content is behind a paywall as an added incentive for those who are willing and able to support the work that goes into putting this newsletter together every week. I’m grateful to those of you who are already paid subscribers, and hope that those of you who aren’t will consider a paid subscription if and when your circumstances permit:

For today’s bonus issue, I wanted to write about Justice Elena Kagan’s appearance at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in July—the big headline out of which was her endorsement of some kind of committee of judges to enforce ethics rules against the justices. There’s a lot to say about that specific idea—and, more generally, about the other topics on which Justice Kagan was unusually candid. But what is striking to me is that she chose to say all of these things, in that particular forum, in the first place. It’s hard to think of anyone who is that much more deliberate in choosing when and where to make particular public comments than Justice Kagan (who, at the same event last year, was the first justice to hint that a Code of Conduct was forthcoming). So the fact that she took this opportunity to say what she did is a pretty powerful indictment of the status quo at the Court—and a loud call for reform from within, to go along with the growing calls from without.

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