Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is slated to introduce a bill on Thursday to effectively invalidate the Supreme Court’s ruling granting presidents immunity from wrongdoings done in an “official” context that experts have warned is ripe for abuse.
The bill, entitled the No Kings Act, would clarify that presidents are not immune from prosecution for criminal acts taken in office. It also states that Congress, not the Supreme Court, has jurisdiction over the issue of who federal criminal law applies to, and prevents the Supreme Court from ruling on any legal appeals of the bill that may be filed.
The bill is a direct response to the far right court’s July ruling that seemed tailor-made to allow Donald Trump to avoid being prosecuted for the various counts of misconduct he is facing in the courts, like his role in inciting a coup on January 6, 2021.
In a statement, Schumer said passing a bill to combat the ruling is “the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent.” The bill has 28 Democratic cosponsors in the Senate.
“In a dangerous and devastating ruling, the MAGA Supreme Court has once again subverted the will of the American people, and the very idea of democracy itself,” Schumer said.
The Supreme Court’s ruling gave presidents an extreme and unprecedented amount of power; in her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that a president could, for instance, order the assassination of a political opponent and face no consequences. Legal experts said the ruling was essentially a “license for dictatorship” for those willing to abuse power like Trump.
The ruling is potentially also an indication that Chief Justice John Roberts is fully leaning into agreeing with the court’s far right majority and their dark money boosters and setting aside concerns from its three liberal justices — a “turning point” for him, according to a recent CNN report detailing how the immunity decision was made.
According to Supreme Court insiders cited by CNN, Roberts didn’t even attempt to negotiate with the liberal justices in deciding the extremist immunity decision. This is a break from the historical practice of the Supreme Court to rule unanimously when making major decisions on presidential power, as CNN noted.
The No Kings Act is unlikely to surpass the 60-vote threshold set by the filibuster, and stands no chance of passing the Republican-dominated House. But the introduction of the bill, along with other actions taken in recent weeks by Democrats, is reflective of Democrats’ willingness to rein in the Supreme Court as it faces a legitimacy crisis of its own making.
The bill’s introduction comes after President Joe Biden proposed a set of three reforms for the Supreme Court in response to the court’s string of far right rulings in recent years. He proposed justices be subject to 18-year term limits and binding code of conduct for the court. He also urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that would overturn the presidential immunity ruling.
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