Stephen Colbert spent much of Wednesday's "Colbert Report" unpacking the challenge to the Voting Rights Act that currently sits before the Supreme Court. "The law that banned the silencing of African-Americans is finally coming before our nation's foremost silent African-American," Colbert quipped while showing a photo of Justice Clarence Thomas.
But Colbert reserved most of his jokes for Antonin Scalia, who has caused a stir in intending to vote against the law as he believes it only serves to perpetuate "racial entitlement" for non-whites, and that the name of the bill, the Voting Rights Act, is so welcoming that no one would ever vote against it.
"Yes, you'd have to be an a-hole to vote against that in the future," Colbert said. "Luckily, we have an a-hole who will vote against that in the present."
He also compared lifting sections of the Voting Rights Act to someone asking to lift a restraining order after domestic abuse: "Yes, I used to beat my girlfriend. But since I don't anymore, we can lift the restraining order."
Check out the clip above to watch Colbert take down Scalia, and below for his conversation with civil rights leader and chairman emeritus of the NAACP, Julian Bond. At one point, Colbert asks him how his experience as an African-American with Georgia roots compared with Justice Thomas' experience. "Justice Thomas and I have lived different lives and we've drawn different lessons from the lives we've lived. He thinks this way, and I think that way. But I'm right."
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