Comedian John Mulaney was among the politicians and reporters you might expect to see attending oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. The 43-year-old stand-up comic took to social media to share his experience, describing his seating position as “cheap seats but a great show.” He posted a crudely drawn map showing his seat behind high-profile figures such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Ed Markey, as well as Meta’s president of global affairs Joel Kaplan.
Mulaney is collaborating with Neal Katyal — the lawyer arguing the case on behalf of the plaintiffs — on a new TV series. Katyal described the show as a “kind of West Wing for the Supreme Court” while speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this year. The case itself relates to President Donald Trump’s ability to impose sweeping tariffs on other nations.
At issue before the court is whether the president can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose two broad sets of tariffs on most countries — including a 10% global tariff Trump announced in April and the higher so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed on nearly 50 countries. Trump said at the time that trade deficits amounted to “the precipice of an economic and national security crisis” sufficient to trigger his powers under IEEPA.
The justices spent little of their questioning Wednesday on the economic impacts of Trump’s tariff plans. Instead, most of the oral arguments focused on the IEEPA statute at the heart of the case, its applicability to tariffs or taxation powers — and what guardrails, if any, exist to limit an executive’s authority should the high court rule in Trump’s favor.
While Trump claimed the case is “literally, LIFE OR DEATH for our country,” Katyal argued that Trump had “torn up the entire tariff architecture.” The plaintiffs in the case contend that in the 50 years since its passage, the IEEPA has never been used by a president to impose tariffs and that permitting the president to do so would drastically expand his powers at the expense of other branches of government.
Earlier this year at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Katyal discussed his collaboration with Mulaney. He stated, “For me, as I see the Supreme Court getting more and more out of step with American society, I thought to myself, I have to also be in a different forum, so I’m actually writing a television show about the Supreme Court.” He emphasized the role of art in fostering dialogue about justice, particularly as he believes the Court is becoming more disconnected from societal norms.