Jon Stewart Criticizes Conservative Supreme Court Rulings On Lethal Injection, EPA Rules
After the Supreme Court made major rulings in favor of the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage, the conservative majority of the court issued rulings in favor of striking down new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules restricting toxic emissions from power plants and the use of painful death penalty drugs. Of course, Jon Stewart was amused that these rulings were the ones that conservatives wanted to celebrate.
“So yes, gay people have the right to marry and poor people have the right to insurance, but on the bright side, America can still kill prisoners painfully and everyone else slowly,” Stewart said in the video during the Daily Show segment.
Stewart used his typical satirical humor to show how conservatives responded to the rulings in favor of gay marriage and Obamacare, with a particular sound bite from Rick Perry saying that the members of court were “legislators in robes.” But when the death penalty drug and the EPA rules were struck down, conservatives counted those as victories worthy of celebration.
The ruling to strike down the EPA rules has a serious effect. The Clean Air Act states that the EPA is to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from certain stationary sources, like refineries and factories. These stationary sources can emit air pollutants like mercury and arsenic, which have been associated with birth defects, cancer, and other defects. Without the rules, there is less regulation, which is a win for conservatives, and a loss to lungs, as Stewart notes.
The second ruling comes from the objection of Oklahoma death-row inmates to the use of the sedative midazolam after it was blamed for botched executions. Some might interpret that as cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court did not in a 5-4 ruling. This led Stewart to ask a question everyone is asking: What is cruel and unusual punishment?
While the show is consciously liberal and satirizes the Republican Party, conservatives made it easier by praising the latter Supreme Court rulings that seem to promote sickness and death.