Justices 'fear for democracy' in dissent on Trump immunity; BBC News, July 1, 2024

Mike Wendling , BBC News; Justices 'fear for democracy' in dissent on Trump immunity

"Six conservative-leaning justices signed the majority opinion, but the three liberals dissented.

Led by Sonia Sotomayor, they expressed "fear for our democracy".

"Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?" Justice Sotomayor wrote. "Immune."

"Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."

"Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done," Justice Sotomayor wrote. "In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."

She was joined in her dissent by the court's two other liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan."

The Supreme Court’s disastrous Trump immunity decision, explained; Vox, July 1, 2024

Ian Millhiser, Vox; The Supreme Court’s disastrous Trump immunity decision, explained

"Trump v. United States is an astonishing opinion. It holds that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution — essentially, a license to commit crimes — so long as they use the official powers of their office to do so."

How Federal Ethics Laws Will Apply to a Trump Presidency; New York Times, 11/11/16

Steve Eder, New York Times; How Federal Ethics Laws Will Apply to a Trump Presidency:

"A theme of Mr. Trump’s presidency is likely to be the clash of his duties running the country with the remnants of his decades as a hard-charging businessman. But federal rules and precedent make a couple of things clear.

Mr. Trump will have no immunity from lawsuits involving his corporate ventures, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling involving Paula Jones, one of President Bill Clinton’s accusers. And nothing will stop Mr. Trump’s family from continuing to run its vast international web of businesses. Federal ethics laws and conflict-of-interest statutes that apply to other federal employees and cabinet members do not apply to the president."