Tuesday’s joint hearing of two subcommittees of the Senate Judiciary Committee, occasioned by the recent spate of nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration, included a troubling glimpse of the toxic left-wing echo chamber. It came during Senator John Kennedy’s questioning of the Democrats’ witness on the panel, Professor Kate Shaw of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Shaw co-hosts the Strict Scrutiny podcast with two other constitutional law scholars who, like her, are unabashedly left-wing: Leah Litman and Melissa Murray.

Kennedy called attention to Shaw’s statement in a 2024 podcast in which she referenced Justice Elena Kagan’s “evil colleagues” on the Supreme Court. “Which justices were you talking about?” Kennedy asked her. Shaw repeatedly denied using the term “evil” in reference to justices, stammering after Kennedy read her full statement, “Sir, I’m very skeptical. If there’s a transcription, it was probably a transcription error. I do not think I said that.”

Kennedy chimed in: “No, you said it. Why don’t you own up to it?”

Shaw conceded only that she has been “very critical of some members of the Supreme Court” while continuing to deny the “evil” quote.

Kennedy continued, “You’re embarrassed that you made that statement, aren’t you?”

Shaw dug in with her denials, and Kennedy lambasted her: “[Y]ou’re an officer of the court, and you’re here advising us to be respectful of federal judges? And you say there are evil members of the United States Supreme Court? Gag me with a spoon! You’re part of what’s the problem in all of this.”

Kennedy posted a video of his questioning on X, interspersed with video clips of Shaw using the “evil colleagues” phrase on her podcast. It was one of the worst takedowns of a witness I have ever seen in a congressional hearing.

I will say this: I know Professor Shaw from the term she clerked for Justice John P. Stevens and I clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. I believe she wants to be seen as a balanced, if liberal, observer of the Court, and that is certainly the role she embraces as the Supreme Court contributor for ABC News. She may well have honestly thought that she wouldn’t have used such derogatory language to describe Supreme Court justices.

But when you are surrounded with people like her rabidly left-wing podcast co-hosts, you can lose perspective. Both Litman and Murray are regularly vicious regarding their conservative targets and do not deserve the credibility they enjoy in the world of legal commentary – credibility afforded in part by their association with Shaw who sounds reasonable by comparison. Litman, for example, once said that the Fifth Circuit “is staffed with some of the most unhinged, deranged, lawless judges on the face of the earth.” Murray characterized the Court’s Bruen decision as “a bag of dicks” and said the rule it laid out was “crazy and bonkers and literally no advocate in the world should have to defend this nonsense.”

In the left-wing bubble Shaw occupies – with her outrageous podcast co-hosts, colleagues in academia and husband who hosts a program on MSNBC – calling justices “evil” probably barely raises an eyebrow.

I’m sure it was a rude awakening when Shaw was finally called out by someone outside the echo chamber.