Copyright Staten Island Advance
The U.S. Supreme Court had an unusual visitor Wednesday, as justices listened to arguments on President Donald Trump’s authority to impose tariffs. Stand-up comedian John Mulaney grabbed a seat near the back of the public viewing area for the hearing, which lasted almost three hours. “Cheap seats but a great show,” Mulaney said in a post on X. Mulaney did not explain why he attended the court proceedings though his close friend Neal Katyal has previously described the acclaimed comedian and voice actor as a “constitutional law nerd.” Katyal also happens to be acting as the lead counsel for a group of small businesses that are challenging the legality of Trump’s global tariffs. The Supreme Court’s ruling will determine whether the president’s tariffs are legal, and if so, how tens of billions of dollars of refunds will be distributed to the U.S. businesses that have paid them. It is a monumental case that could eventually be adapted as a storyline in the television show Mulaney and Katyal are developing together. “I’m actually writing a television show about the Supreme Court, it’s kind of a ‘West Wing’ for the Supreme Court,” Katyal said in June, according to The Hollywood Insider. “I’m writing with John Mulaney and it’ll be out in a couple of years. But part of the idea is to try and use the arts to spur a conversation about what justice is.” In a brief interview Wednesday with Business Insider, Constitutional law scholar Akhil Reed Amar said it was “unsurprising” that Mulaney chose to sit in on oral arguments in the tariff case.
