The Daily Show returned to Comedy Central on Monday after over a month off, with Jon Stewart wasting no time getting back into old form by hysterically warning that the Supreme Court just green-lit President Trump and ICE to “nullify the Fourth Amendment” with their immigration raids.
Earlier, Stewart mocked various administration officials for what he considered to be excessive praise of Trump, and now he accused the Court of doing the same, “But if you think there is some government institutions that are above this kind of insulting obsequiousness, you would be wrong. Today, the Supreme Court bent over backwards to grant Trump even his most unconstitutional wishes. Like, maybe you can arrest people for looking Mexican.”
That led to a clip of Newsmax’s Bianca de la Garza reporting, “Breaking at this hour, the Supreme Court again has backed President Trump's approach towards immigration. It is now ruled that they are allowing federal agents to proceed with raids in Southern California if they target people for deportation based on their race or language.”
Stewart was greatly displeased, “Hey, the good news: The Supreme Court supports affirmative action based on race. The bad news is that action is ICE deporting you. What the [bleep]? What kind of a Make-a-Wish kid wants to nullify the Fourth Amendment?”
There are a couple of things Stewart left out. First, because this was a procedural case, the Court simply removed a stay put in place by a lower judge while declining to rule on the specific question. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, however, wrote a concurring opinion where he criticized the idea that seems to suggest that deportation raids are now unconstitutional simply because Trump is doing them, “Immigration stops based on reasonable suspicion of illegal presence have been an important component of U. S. immigration enforcement for decades, across several presidential administrations.”
Kavanaugh also listed two areas in addition to race or language that ICE can use including “presence at particular locations such as bus stops, car washes, day laborer pickup sites, agricultural sites” and “the type of work one does.”
Finally, Kavanaugh addressed Stewart’s claim that the government can arrest anyone for “looking Mexican,” writing, “To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion; under this Court’s case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.”
Nevertheless, Stewart continued, “I'm beginning to think Trump isn't a benign suffering child at all. I'm beginning to think everybody treats Trump like this not because he's a Make-a-Wish kid, but because he's that Twilight Zone kid that anytime somebody made him mad, he sent them out to the cornfield.”
Stewart was trying to suggest that anyone can be arrested simply if they look Mexican or Latino. That is not true, but the truth is harder to fearmonger about.
Here is a transcript for the September 8 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
9/8/2025
11:16 PM ET
JON STEWART: But if you think there is some government institutions that are above this kind of insulting obsequiousness, you would be wrong. Today, the Supreme Court bent over backwards to grant Trump even his most unconstitutional wishes. Like, maybe you can arrest people for looking Mexican.
BIANCA DE LA GARZA: Breaking at this hour, the Supreme Court again has backed President Trump's approach towards immigration. It is now ruled that they are allowing federal agents to proceed with raids in Southern California if they target people for deportation based on their race or language.
STEWART: Hey, the good news: The Supreme Court supports affirmative action based on race. The bad news is that action is ICE deporting you. What the [bleep]? What kind of a Make-a-Wish kid wants to nullify the Fourth Amendment? I'm beginning to think Trump isn't a benign suffering child at all. I'm beginning to think everybody treats Trump like this not because he's a Make-a-Wish kid, but because he's that Twilight Zone kid that anytime somebody made him mad, he sent them out to the cornfield.