‘Some Of These Folks Really Are Hacks’: CNN Republican Hits Kagan For Flip On Nationwide Injunctions

CNN Republican commentator Scott Jennings took a swing at Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, pointing out how quickly she’d changed her tune on the topic of nationwide injunctions when the party in power had changed.

Jennings raised the point during a panel discussion on “CNN Newsnight” with host Abby Phillip, captioning a video of the exchange, “Does anyone remember Justice Kagan being against nationwide injunctions when we had a DEMOCRAT President? Pepperidge Farms remembers.”

WATCH:

Does anyone remember Justice Kagan being against nationwide injunctions when we had a DEMOCRAT President?

Pepperidge Farms remembers. pic.twitter.com/s31HUKrkNo

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) June 28, 2025

Phillip began the conversation by noting that both Democrats and Republicans had opposed the idea of nationwide injunctions — a tool used by lower courts to extend what would otherwise be limited rulings to apply across the entire country — mostly when they were being used by the opposition party to restrain an executive with whom they agreed.

“The nationwide injunction is officially dead and the court taking an opportunity here to do something that a lot of conservatives, perhaps, have wanted for a while. But, as we’ve discussed plenty of times, the nationwide injunction has been sort of the bane of the existence of Democrat and Republican presidents. It’s just that now this court has actually done it,” Phillip said.

Jennings, who has said on a number of occasions that the real “constitutional crisis” in play at present was a runaway judiciary bent on restraining President Donald Trump by any means necessary. “Yeah, they’ve finally done something about it. Friday was a great day for Donald Trump. The market ended at all-time highs. He’s breaking peace agreements in the Oval Office on a Friday afternoon. And then the court really clears the way for him to enact the agenda on which he ran.”

“I was trying to sort out my feelings on this matter, and I came up with a quote from a very smart lawyer, and I just want to quote it, because I think she was right when she said it. ‘It just can’t be right that one District Judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks,'” Jennings continued, pivoting to reveal his source: “Justice Elena Kagan in 2022 said that. Of course, when we had a democratic president. Now she voted against the decision on Friday. Just goes to show you that some of these folks really are hacks.”

“But as you correctly said, this has been the bane of existence of presidents and I’m glad they went ahead and fixed it because it’s not right that one of these individual district court judges can act like a king or a monarch and stop the elected president from acting,” Jennings concluded.