From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Thursday, the 4th of July.

It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom, filling in for Brian today.

Since today is the 4th of July, a time when we celebrate the birth of our country, I want to start

this segment off by sharing a few lines from the Declaration of Independence, the document that

started it all read by my colleagues, WNYC's Amanda Rosone, Amina Serna, and

Juliana Fonda.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed

by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from

the consent of the governed. That when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,

it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute

new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form,

as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

We've all heard this text. It's nothing new. But in this particular moment of our country's

history, these words feel particularly relevant. Over the course of the last few years, we've

repeatedly heard warnings that democracy is at stake in the upcoming 2024 elections.

And as the election grows near, that threat feels more real. Let's just recap

some of the events of this past week alone. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump

and all other former presidents are immune to prosecution for actions taken while exercising

their core constitutional powers and entitled to the presumption of immunity for their official acts.

That's for presidents, not former presidents. In her biting dissent, Justice Sotomayor rather straightforwardly states,

in every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.

...