Immunity

• On March 19, 2024, Trump filed his brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith for Trump’s alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
• To support his contention, Trump cites Supreme Court cases, the Federalist Papers, and other writings from legal scholars.
• If a student of mine had submitted a brief making the arguments that Trump and his lawyers assert in their Supreme Court filing, I would have given them an F.

Sitting in judgment

• But it is not standard practice to characterize those cases and documents as saying one thing when they say the complete opposite.
• Trump begins by citing Marbury v. Madison from 1803, which is one of the court’s most consequential cases.
• Trump also argues that, according to the Constitution, “federal courts cannot sit in judgment directly over the President’s official acts.” This assertion is contrary to scores of cases where federal courts have reviewed presidential acts.
• That act grants the secretary of education the authority to “waive or modify” student loan programs during national emergencies.

Citing Kavanaugh

• But the main legal question remains – whether a president holds, as Trump claims, absolute immunity from criminal investigations and prosecutions for a president’s official acts.
• From a policy perspective, Trump claims that “functional considerations” warrant the absolute immunity that he seeks because if a president is subject to criminal liability, that legal exposure “will cripple … Presidential decisionmaking.”

• To further this claim, Trump relies on a 2009 law review article by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who now sits on the Supreme Court.
• Trump quotes Kavanaugh, who wrote that “a President who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as President,” which Trump provides as evidence of support for the position that a president requires absolute immunity.
• But even a cursory reading of Kavanaugh’s article reveals that Kavanaugh argued only for a deferral of a criminal prosecution until after a president leaves office.

Civil cases vs. criminal cases

• Trump urges the court to extend the presidential immunity established in this civil case to criminal matters.
• But he overlooks the fundamental difference between the civil justice system and the criminal justice system.
• The purpose of the civil justice system is to make an injured party whole again.
• But the purpose of the criminal justice system is to protect society, because crimes are understood to be harms against the public.

Wayne Unger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• In Singapore, while most citizens have established "the new normal", the upward trend of COVID-19 is still a pressing issue.
• Occurrences of Tuberculosis have also been regular, with active cases constantly being detected through the country's National TB Programme.
• The pressing issue about contracting such respiratory diseases is the lasting effects that it creates, even after the patient has recovered.
• The possibilities of patients having recurring illnesses when their immunity weakens also poses a potential threat to the nation's overall wellbeing.

• and GOSSELIES, Belgium, March 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITOS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery and development of a new generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics for patients, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023 and provided a business update.
• “With the recent developments in the TIGIT field, we believe belrestotug is in an advantageous position and are excited for its future prospects.
• We look forward to sharing updates from our Phase 2 trials focused on 1L NSCLC and 1L HNSCC in 2024.
• On December 7, 2023, iTeos announced the appointment of David K. Lee to the Company’s Board of Directors.

• The study revealed that complete pre-TCRα deficiency is rare in humans and less severe than anticipated.
• Prof. Peter Bauer, Chief Medical and Genomic Officer at CENTOGENE, said, "This research advances our understanding of pre-TCRα deficiency significantly.
• In analyzing genomic and phenomic data, CENTOGENE researchers helped establish the association between partial pre-TCRα deficiency and autoimmunity, with a higher prevalence than initially expected.
• Christian Beetz, Senior Director Genomic Innovation at CENTOGENE, added, “Until now, the impact of pre-TCRα deficiency has been largely unknown.