With Americans deciding the congressional balance of power in November’s midterm elections, Justice Elena Kagan is directing attention to the Supreme Court’s role in shaping the ballot. Her warning presents a stark picture of a political system damaged by decisions from the nation’s highest court.

The Obama appointed justice delivered that assessment Tuesday at Catholic University’s law school in Washington. She argued that the court has ignored how deeply its rulings affect the functioning of American democracy.

Kagan said the court “has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effect of their rulings on how the political system works and has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should.”

Her comments away from the bench echoed forceful criticisms she previously made in dissenting opinions. Those objections targeted rulings from the majority appointed by Republicans on partisan gerrymandering, the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance.

One central dispute came in the 2019 case Rucho v. Common Cause. The majority said claims involving partisan gerrymandering present “political questions” that courts cannot answer.

Kagan wrote the dissent on behalf of what was then a minority of four justices. She said the decision represented “the first time ever” that the court “refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities.”

Her criticism continued this year as the court considered another major voting dispute. Writing for the current minority of three justices in Louisiana v. Callais, Kagan condemned what the six justice majority had done to the Voting Rights Act.

Kagan called the ruling the “latest chapter in the majority’s now-completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act.” Her wording framed the decision not as an isolated development, but as part of the majority’s completed destruction of the law.

Campaign finance produced another sharp dissent from the same group of three justices. The majority struck down additional limits and overturned another precedent in the process, prompting Kagan to warn about the consequences for democracy.

In that dissent, she said the majority “jettisons a rule needed to protect our democracy’s integrity.” Her criticism linked the court’s campaign finance rulings directly to the protections surrounding the political system.

Kagan returned to the subject Tuesday by describing how Americans view the flood of money around political candidates. She said the public can plainly recognize the problem created by that system.

The American people, Kagan said, “look around this political system and think that all this money chasing all these political candidates is a nightmare.” She then added, “And they’re right.”

The justices are currently between their October and November hearing sessions. Even during that interval, however, they will continue receiving and considering emergency applications connected to the midterms or other disputes.

One pending application comes from New Hampshire Republicans seeking to prevent voters from using student IDs. That request gives the justices another opportunity to influence election rules as Americans cast ballots in contests that will determine control of Congress.

The court has already intervened in an array of election disputes this year, although its rulings have not always favored the GOP. Those varied outcomes do not erase Kagan’s broader argument about how the majority’s decisions have affected the political landscape.

Whatever result emerges from the midterm elections, Kagan’s comments offer a pointed framework for evaluating the system in which those contests are taking place. Voters are making consequential choices on terrain that Supreme Court rulings have helped construct.

Her remarks also pull together objections she has raised across multiple areas of election law. Gerrymandering, voting rights and campaign finance may involve separate cases, but Kagan’s criticism focuses on their combined impact on a democracy she says is not working as well as it should.

That message lands while control of Congress is being decided and election related applications remain before the justices. Kagan’s warning is that the court cannot treat its rulings as disconnected from the political system those decisions continually reshape.