Comedian John Mulaney was among several public figures who attended Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing on a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
The hearing ran nearly three hours and attracted attention for its mix of government officials, lawmakers, and well-known attendees.
Among those spotted were Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Democrat Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, The Hill reported.
Mulaney, 43, was seated in the public gallery and appeared to follow the proceedings closely.
Later that day, he posted on X, “Cheap seats but a great show,” along with a hand-drawn diagram of the courtroom showing his position in the “back row.”
While Mulaney did not comment publicly on why he attended, his visit came as he collaborates with attorney Neal Katyal, who argued the case against the tariffs.
Katyal, representing small businesses challenging the policy, has previously said that he and Mulaney are co-writing a television series about the Supreme Court.
“I’m actually writing a television show about the Supreme Court, it’s kind of a West Wing for the Supreme Court,” Katyal said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m writing with John Mulaney and it’ll be out in a couple of years. But part of the idea is to try and use the arts to spur a conversation about what justice is.”
In a 2023 Substack post, Katyal described his admiration for Mulaney’s curiosity about the law and his perspective on complex issues.
“I didn’t know until last year he is also a Constitutional Law nerd,” Katyal wrote. “I mean, seriously, he texts me all sorts of questions about random Supreme Court cases. All the time. And they are damn good questions.”
Katyal added that those exchanges inspired him to launch his podcast “Courtside,” aimed at making legal discussions more accessible.
Mulaney has not confirmed if his Supreme Court visit was related to their upcoming show but Akhil Reed Amar, a constitutional law scholar and mutual friend of both men, said the comedian was present, in part, because Katyal was at the podium.
“My dear friend John is far more than a world-class theatrical talent; he is a serious public intellectual with a deep interest in law and American civics,” Amar, a Yale Law School professor, told Business Insider. “So it is unsurprising that he would want to attend one of the biggest Supreme Court oral arguments of our time — especially because his close friend Neal Katyal was center stage today, so to speak.”
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