You can now legitimately call John Oliver a popular political critic—that's because a real-life, Ninth Circuit judge is doing so, too. In her recent opinion on Paeste v. Guam (a class-action suit levied at Guam by its residents over a sketchy, arbitrary tax-refund program), Judge Marsha S. Berzon has cited Last Week Tonight's recent segment on U.S. territories. Oliver in March pointed out the disgusting hypocrisy behind a Supreme Court decision made more than 100 years ago (still unchanged) that has left U.S. territories without meaningful representation. Guam in particular, as noted by Oliver and Co., gives a quarter of its land and an eighth of its people to the U.S.; however, its residents still can't vote on certain monumental national issues (e.g. the commander-in-chief). In short, legally speaking, things can get muddy with Guam and the other territories because certain laws have not been updated.

But Berzon decided to nod toward the brilliant segment while referencing the "Insular Cases"—the early 20th-century cases that led to the aforementioned Constitutional mess. Behold:

We do note, however, that the so-called "Insular Cases," which established a less-than-complete application of the Constitution in some U.S. territories, has been the subject of extensive judicial, academic, and popular criticism. See, e.g., Juan Torruella, The Insular Cases: The Establishment of a Regime of Political Apartheid, 77 Rev. Jur. U.P.R. 1 (2008); Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: U.S. Territories, Youtube (Mar. 8, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CesHr99ezWE

I guess you could say Oliver is heating up. While his territories segment was not directly related to the weird tax-refund program going on over there, it did serve as a reference point for an opinion that ultimately concluded Guam must find another way to deal with its fiscal troubles. The Oliver team's televangelist segment has also put some much-needed pressure on the IRS to scrutinize those who preach about seed faith and "The Gospel of Prosperity." Keep fighting the good fight, John. You can read the full opinion here and watch the original segment below:

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[H/T TIME, Above the Law

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