Lawrence on Trump immunity rejection: This is the nation I idea I changed into once residing in

Neil I I want to begin with you as the appet uh expert here and I would not presume to uh Focus you with the question I just want to have us all listen to your reaction to what you think are the important points of this opinion well I think that we could very well Lawrence be looking at the very last words about Trump's Claim about.

Absolute immunity from Criminal prosecution and we could be looking at words that will likely Force Donald Trump to go to a criminal trial for the January 6th Insurrection and most importantly to have that trial before the presidential election which makes a lot of sense because the American people deserve to know exactly what happened on.

That day and to me like this decision shows our legal system at its best you got three judges with dramatically differental views dramatically different judicial philosophies they come together they produce prod This brilliant methodical timely opinion it's a model of good judging I've always felt there's a difference between law and politics.

Judge Henderson is on this case she's a very conservative jurist she voted against Donald Trump just as much as the other two judges and it reminds me of like you know kind of those historic votes that are cast I remember Jeffrey Sutton who is up for on the short list for the Supreme Court very conservative J judge upholds President Obama's.

Affordable Care Act the first judge to you know so-called cross party lines this is what it's about I mean no presidential get out of jail free card in our constitution this is the essence of what American democracy is and I do not think and we can talk about this more later I don't think the Supreme Court's going to touch this with a.

10-foot poll Neil talk about it right now in terms of what do you think the elements uh of the opinion uh which ones carry the strength that will make uh the Supreme Court feel the job is done they don't need us I think the most important piece is constitutional structure just that our entire system is basically a rebellion against King George III and.

The idea that people can be above the law in our system there's lots of small points that are made some of them are really good like you know Donald Trump himself said in his second impeachment his lawyers said you know don't impeach him because he can be criminally prosecuted and now he's turning around and saying oh I can't be criminally.

Prosecuted because I was a former president there's lots of small things like that but to me the ultimate thing is Donald Trump is citizen Trump that's the way the opinion ends and that's like a fundamental principle in our anglo-american system of government no person's Above the Law everyone is treated equally it's what the words on.

The top of the Supreme Court say equal protection under law and that's what this decision's all about it's why I don't think the Supreme Court will take this case uh andw I have to say in reading it there's a lot of things I didn't know I didn't know about that congressman who said this 200 years ago I didn't really.

Know the Mary versus Madison linkage to any of this so there it is so's a lot of Illumination about historical detail but there's not a single surprise there's nothing surprising about it at all this is the country I thought I was living in yeah so there's something incredibly affirming about this but I think one of the reasons Neil and I and many many.

Others um were not surprised by this is the claims that Donald Trump was making are completely unfounded there there's no precedent for them this is one where everyone says oh Donald Trump he's unprecedented in a court of law that's not very good um you need to have President on your side he didn't I would like to focus on Donald Trump is fond of.

Saying publicly and walking back his claim I'm only going to be a dictator for a day I didn't really mean it it's only one day look at the decision in terms of what Donald Trump is saying it's not one day he is his claims these are not abstract he is saying I am as a when I become president he is saying I'm should.

Have the unbounded authority to commit crimes I should not have the check of an electorate to remove me um at the quote from the the court is at bottom former president Trump's stance would collapse our system of separated Powers by placing the president beyond the reach of all three branches that is a claim to the DC Circuit of being a dictator that.

That is what he wants this idea that it's oh I didn't really mean it it's only for a day no he tried to get the DC circuit to go along with that um so of course that was going to be rejected what to me is preposterous is that this is somebody who's actually a serious candidate to run for office when he's running on something that you now have a.

A unanimous decision saying this is fundamentally his view is fundamentally antithetical to the American system of justice

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