The Impact of Presidential Immunity on Accountability

OA1114 - “We are now faced, my friends, with the fact that tomorrow is today.” --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1967)

We begin the second Trump administration exactly where we intend to remain for the next four years: in dissent. 

Today’s Inauguration Day counter-programming features two of the most powerful dissenters in modern American history: Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We begin with commentary on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s defiantly inspiring July 1, 2024 dissent as read from the bench in the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and conclude with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful call for a “revolution of values” to end “power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.” 

• Audio of Supreme Court decision announcements for July 1, 2024 (Sotomayor dissent begins as 42:00)

• Full text of Trump v. US (7/1/2024)(including Roberts majority, Coney Barrett concurrence, and Sotomayor and Jackson dissents)

• “Hear Me Roar: What Provokes Supreme Court Justices to Dissent from the Bench?” Timothy R. Johnson et al, Minnesota Law Review (2010)

• Martin Luther King, Jr. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” (April 4, 1967)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

If you’d like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!