Reply #27: So Clinton, a sitting President, could't be granted immunity in the Paula Jones lawsuit, but

[sinkingfeeling]

Cheney and company can be?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/pjones/stories/pj052897.htm

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Paula Corbin Jones can move forward with her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. The court's forceful decision rejected Clinton's argument that sitting presidents should have legal immunity from allegations involving their personal conduct.


Yesterday's ruling nonetheless eliminated what Clinton's lawyers thought would be their best gambit – the argument that the nation's chief executive has a job so demanding that he should be protected from civil lawsuits until leaving office. To make their case, they relied chiefly on an earlier court decision that said presidents are immune from lawsuits for their official actions, arguing that therefore a president should have temporary immunity from lawsuits involving personal conduct as well.


The Supreme Court yesterday spurned Clinton's contention that he should not have to defend himself against Jones until 2001, finding that nothing in the Constitution allows a sitting president to postpone a private civil damages lawsuit.