On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the comedian shared his thoughts on the Supreme Court’s decision to ban cameras filming their oral arguments.
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia argued that allowing cameras into the Court to film arguments would result in reporters running out of context news segments.
The Supreme Court’s term, which began earlier this month, allows audio clips to be run on television news. The problem is most news programs show 15-second audio clips with drawings of the Supreme Court justice who is speaking, which — according to Oliver — is extremely dull.
“It’s boring,” he told his audience, “and that’s a problem because what happens at the Supreme Court is way too important not to pay attention too, and yet, the ban renders any coverage as to what is watchable.”
His Solution
Knowing that millions of people spend countless hours online watching cat and dog videos, Oliver told his audience, “I think we have a solution.”
Oliver and his team took actual audio arguments from the Supreme Court and instead of showing the dull drawings of the Justices, he replaced them with an assortment of talking dogs dressed in legal black robes. Take a look at “Real Animals, Fake Paws Footage:”
According to Oliver and his cheering audience, watching nine dogs dressed as the nine Justices sitting in court, makes the Supreme Court’s arguments more compelling to watch. There is one dog for each Judge.
Oliver told his audience, “Be honest, you want to hear the entire oral argument. Those dry constitutional arguments are now must-see television.”
