Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost took aim at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s controversial leaked draft opinion onRoe v Wadeduring the Weekend Update segment on 7 May, making reference to actor Johnny Depp’s ongoing defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Jost opened his monologue by pointing out that: “Tomorrow is Mother's Day, whether you wanted to be one or not.”
He went on to explain that: “In an unprecedented move that could cause lasting damage to the Supreme Court, a draft opinion was leaked which indicates that they intend to overturn Roe v Wade. So the court is usually careful, but they slipped up just this once and now they've got to live with it forever. Sounds really unfair!”
The show’s cold open had already mocked Justice Alito with a Benedict Cumberbatch-starring sketch set in 13th Century England. Jost returned to the idea that Justice Alito’s views are outdated, saying: “The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito, and he bases his arguments on laws from the 1600s. So it's an outdated opinion from an angry 70-year-old? This shouldn't be a Supreme Court decision, it should just be a Facebook post.”
Jost added: “The opinion also seems like it was written in a weird conservative bubble. Here's how you know: he quotes his own colleague Brett Kavanaugh six times. One for each beer in the pack. He even cites Kavanaugh on civil rights, which is like citing Amber Heard on how to make a bed.”
A headline displayed behind Jost made it clear that this was a reference to news that one of Johnny Depp’s security guards had said in court that Amber Heard called faeces found in the couple’s bed a “practical joke gone wrong”. The former couple are involved in a multi-million dollar defamation trial in Virginia.
Elsewhere on Saturday Night Live, host Cumberbatch joked about being “beat by Will Smith” at the Oscars. The actor, who was nominated in the same category as Smith, quickly clarified: “Not physically!”
