Having turned the regulation of abortion back over to the states, the pro-life majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is coming for your kidneys next, according to Jon Stewart.
The Comedy Central host-turned-podcaster made the legal leap last week on “The Problem With Jon Stewart” while discussing the high court’s recent ruling overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case and ending the federally guaranteed right to abortion.
“You may say I’m being crazy,” Stewart began, before reasoning that if life trumps personal autonomy, and organ donations save lives, the pro-life movement could now “go to a person and say, ‘Give me one of your kidneys because it’s going to save this person’s life.’”
Yes, you're 'crazy': @jonstewart claims overturning Roe now means the government can forcefully harvest your organs https://t.co/ouM5s826F9
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 5, 2022
Stewart went on to blast the Court as corrupt, calling it the “Fox News of justice,” and agreed when one of his writers called SCOTUS “bulls***.”
The Supreme Court on June 24 voted 6-3 to uphold a Mississippi law limiting abortions to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. In doing so, a five-justice majority overruled Roe v. Wade and determined that the right to allow, regulate or even ban abortion resides with states, not the federal government.
Stewart accused conservative justices of “perjury” by refusing to disclose their opinions about abortion during their Senate confirmation hearings.
“It would’ve been one thing if [the justices] sat in the confirmation hearings and said, ‘My entire ideological bearing is that life begins at conception and that abortion should be made legal,’” Stewart said. “And at the very least, you would respect their honesty and integrity, but this makes the Court a cynical pursuit.”
Judicial nominees from across the ideological spectrum have long been careful to say how they would rule on particular issues, mindful of the fact that cases that come before the Court are fact-specific. Newest member of the Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, even famously refused to answer when asked what a woman is during her confirmation hearing.
Stewart also claimed the Right has no true legal scholars and that constitutional originalists like justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito hide behind the words of the Constitution.
“The reason they call themselves originalists is the same reason they quote the Bible: it’s dogma, it’s dead people, it’s people you cannot argue with,” Stewart said. “This text is — it’s fundamentalism. It’s saying this text is sacrosanct. Even that gun s***. … None of this is ordained by God of a burning bush or any of that.”