Courting disaster

Like King Midas of old, everything that President Trump touches is transformed. Not to gold or something gold-plated, as Trump might aesthetically prefer, but to corruption. He has damaged the FBI and the Department of Justice. He has fired many inspectors general (including the State Department’s, on Friday). But there still remains the independent judiciary to safeguard our freedoms and liberty and hold even the president to account.

In Albany soon, the seven judges of New York State’s highest legal bench, the Court of Appeals, will hear arguments to decide whether the president is immune from a state civil lawsuit for pre-presidential acts. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled for Paula Jones against Bill Clinton, saying that the president has no such immunity from federal suits. The same standard should apply here.

Summer Zervos, once a contestant on “The Apprentice,” filed a defamation case against Trump in Manhattan state Supreme Court. In 2016, she went public with details of Trump’s unwanted sexual advances, and he called her a liar. He claims he can’t be sued. Hooey, ruled the trial judge and appellate panel.

They are right. Like, Jones, this has nothing to do with the office of the presidency, only the man.

Last week, a Virginia federal appeals court revived a case brought against Trump by Maryland and the District of Columbia. They allege that Trump’s continuing income from his private hotels violates the Constitution’s emoluments clauses.

Trump tried to get it tossed, but judges have the final word. That’s America and that’s great.