John Oliver aired a years-long grievance he evidently has with Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde — yes, you read that right —on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight.
The HBO host’s main segment focused on the Supreme Court, specifically something called shadow dockets.
“The Court has been repeatedly jumping into ongoing cases to say, ‘You know what, while this works its way through the courts, Trump should get to do the thing that he wants to do anyway,’” Oliver explained. “It’s basically a football referee saying, ‘Pending a final ruling on the legality of the quarterback having a gun, I’m just gonna stand back and see where he’s going with this.’”
That’s where the shadow docket comes in, Oliver noted, adding that to understand what that is, viewers should be reminded how the Supreme Court decides cases.
Oliver then showed a CNN clip where the reporter explained the process, staring out by saying, “When you think of a Supreme Court case, you’re thinking of a case on the merits docket.”
The reporter then explained how the case starts in district court, then gets appealed to a circuit court and gets petitioned be heard by the Supreme Court justices, who write briefs, make arguments, ask questions and meet to discuss the case before voting on it. After, they write long opinions and dissents based on how they voted.
“Yeah, that is very basically it,” Oliver said. “Although one small thing there: Saying, ‘When you think of a Supreme Court case, you’re thinking of the merits docket,’ excuse me, you don’t know what I’m thinking of when I think of the Supreme Court, especially as what I’m actually thinking about is how the sequel to Legally Blonde — Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde — dropped the ball by not having Elle Woods argue a case in front of it,” he added of the 2003 movie starring Reese Witherspoon.
“Come on, guys!” he continued his rant. “The best part of the first movie is the murder trial, and the sequel has no trial scenes? You set the movie in D.C. and don’t let Elle show what she can do in front of the highest court in the land? That is madness.
“Anyway, that is what I’m always thinking of when I think of a Supreme Court case, the one I’m eventually gonna bring against the producers of Legally Blonde 2 for not putting Reese in a position to succeed.
“But admittedly, the second thing I’m thinking of is that process, the regular established path to the Supreme Court,” he added.