A Palestinian, a Jew, and a Priest Walk Onto a Campus
Solving Columbia.
Tonight Mona is hosting a special YouTube livestream on SCOTUS oral arguments in the presidential immunity case with Kim Wehle and Gregg Nunziata. It’ll be here.
Can a president murder his political opponents or carry out a coup and be immune from criminal prosecution? Samuel Alito’s stunning conclusion will shock you!
I mean, I’m joking about it, but this is where we actually are. At oral arguments one justice asked Trump’s lawyer if the president was legally allowed to order the assassination of a rival and Trump’s lawyer responded: "It would depend," but "we can see that could well be an official act."
And it seems like at least three of the justices are taking this argument seriously.
Like I said: Don’t miss the show. Mona will go LIVE at 7pm in the East.
1. Fixed It For You
You know how we fix the chaos at Columbia University? We listen to a Catholic priest!
I’m kidding, obviously. But also not really kidding? The chaplain at Columbia is Fr. Roger Landry and he is (1) a family friend and (2) a wise and loving soul.1 A couple days ago he gave an interview to a Catholic website about the Columbia protests. There are two things to take from it: his firsthand observations of the scene and his thoughts on how to move forward.
But before we get to any of that, his most important advice for outsiders is the same counsel he’s been giving to Catholic students at Columbia:
The two most important things we do in any circumstance are to pray and to love.
That’s that starting point. Now here are some of his observations, which may surprise you if you haven’t been following the situation closely: