Welcome to on the media's midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Big Supreme Court

news this week. On Monday it ruled that Trump is absolutely immune from

prosecution for any conduct, quote,

involving his discussions with Justice Department officials,

such as Jeffrey Clark, accused in the words of a D.C. bar attorney

of attempting a Justice Department coup in support of Trump's false election fraud claims.

It ruled also that Trump is presumed immune from prosecution for pressuring then Vice President Mike Pence to

overturn the election on January 6, 2021 because it quote involved official conduct and that the government would have to prove

that prosecuting Trump for this wouldn't intrude on the authority and functions of

the executive branch. Public opinion of the Supreme Court has fallen to

historic loads. Last summer a Pew Research Center poll found that only 44% of Americans now view the court favorably,

while a narrow majority, 54% take a dimmer view.

Why?

Well, in part, because of its decisions and the queasy feeling that it is corrupt.

Case in point, last month, Clarence Thomas acknowledged several luxury trips that were gifted to him by billionaire

Harlan Crow. But the pair's financial ties had long been public knowledge thanks to a bombshell report by ProPublica in

2023. For years Justice Clarence Thomas has secretly accepted luxury gifts

from a GOP mega donor Harlan Crow.

He took these trips places like New Zealand, Indonesia on private yachts, private jets.

A $500,000 trip to Indonesia one year.

Many of these trips went undisclosed on Thomas's ethics filing, despite that being

required by law.

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