Comedy Central’s Monday host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, welcomed lawyer and professor Sherrilyn Ifill to the program to react to the Supreme Court’s latest ruling regarding the Voting Rights Act. However, Stewart also invited Ifill to give a larger history lesson, which led him to laugh at the Court’s 2013 ruling that got rid of the need for DOJ preclearance for southern states because racism in 2026 is not the same as it was in 1965.
Stewart began by asserting, “What are the metrics for how we decided things have changed? Because I would assume that those metrics are the result of Section Five.”
Cracking himself up, he continued, “Is this—is it literally as bad as ‘Section Five has worked so well, let's remove Section Five?’”
Jon Stewart thinks the idea that the country isn't as racist as it was in the 60s is haliarious, "Is this—is it literally as bad as Section Five has worked so well, let's remove Section Five?" Prof. Sherrilyn Ifill goes on to echo the left's favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg-umbrella… pic.twitter.com/DsX7BbTRKu
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 5, 2026
Ifill responded by citing the left’s favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg quote, “That is what the late, great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. She said that eliminating Section Five now is like using an umbrella, and it keeps you dry, and then you say, ‘Well, let me throw away the umbrella because I am dry even though it is raining outside.’"
Her proof that it is still raining was quite underwhelming, “So, that's what happened. That was now gone. Now we didn't have preclearance, and you all may have noticed in the last ten years, the explosion of voter ID laws and voter suppression laws, that came as a result of 2013.”
Stewart then scoffed, “Right, because they don't have to get preclearance. Although, to be fair, if you were trying to get preclearance from this administration, I would imagine they would just go, ‘You're precleared.’”
It is considered common sense that someone would be legally required to obtain a driver’s license before they drive a car, but requiring that same driver’s license as a form of ID at a polling station is considered 1965-style racism, according to The Daily Show. That is why Stewart’s question is backward. The question should not be what the metrics are to show whether things have changed, but how do Stewart and Ifill decide that things haven’t changed?
Here is a transcript for the May 4 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
5/4/2026
11:35 PM ET
JON STEWART: What are the metrics for how we decided things have changed? Because I would assume that those metrics are the result of Section Five.
SHERRILYN IFILL: Yeah, it’s so interesting.
STEWART: Is this—is it literally as bad as—
IFILL: Yeah.
STEWART: — "Section Five has worked so well, let's remove Section Five?"
IFILL: That is what the late, great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. She said that eliminating Section Five now is like using an umbrella, and it keeps you dry, and then you say, "Well, let me throw away the umbrella because I am dry even though it is raining outside."
So, that's what happened. That was now gone. Now we didn't have preclearance, and you all may have noticed in the last ten years, the explosion of voter ID laws and voter suppression laws, that came as a result of 2013.
STEWART: Right, because they don't have to get preclearance. Although, to be fair, if you were trying to get preclearance from this administration, I would imagine they would just go, "You're precleared."
