It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC. I'm Bridget Bergen, filling in for Brian

today. Good morning again, everybody. Since tomorrow 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 at all read by my colleagues WNYC's Amanda Roseone, Amina Sarna, 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 nearer, 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. And then we had the presidential debate last week, which for all the talk about Biden's

missteps and Trump's mistruths, also rather incredibly included moments like this.

...