'We're not imperial': Elena Kagan demolishes Sam Alito's claims that Congress can't regulate court

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Friday picked apart Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito's claims that Congress should butt out of imposing ethical standards on SCOTUS.

While acknowledging that she couldn't speak for Alito's full intentions in making his recent controversial claims, Kagan proceeded to lay out the constitutional basis for Congress intervening in the Supreme Court's business.

"Of course Congress can regulate the Supreme Court," she said. "Congress funds the court. Congress has traditionally made changes to the court's structure and composition. Congress has historically made changes to the court's appellate jurisdiction. And there's a provision in the Constitution that says something like, 'The Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction under regulations that Congress provides.'"

Kagan also said she found it unlikely, given the emphasis that America's founders placed on checks and balances when drafting the United States Constitution, they would have intended for the Supreme Court to be immune to oversight from the other two branches of the federal government.

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"It just can't be that the Court is the only institution that somehow is not subject to any checks and balances from anybody else," she argued. "I mean, we're not imperial."

To sum up her final argument, Kagan then said, "So, can Congress do various things to regulate the Supreme Court? I think the answer is yes."

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