On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) filed legislation that seeks to nullify the Supreme Court's recent presidential immunity ruling.
The “No Kings Act” would affirm no president or vice president, former or sitting, would be “entitled to any form of immunity (whether absolute, presumptive, or otherwise) from criminal prosecution for alleged violations of the criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.”
Last month in a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts conducted while in office. However, the ruling clarifies that this immunity does not extend to unofficial acts.
Schumer's bill would also remove the high court's appellate jurisdiction in legal challenges against the legislation. In addition to other restraints on constitutional challenges, the bill would allow the federal government to file actions in the “applicable” district court or the one in Washington, D.C.
The legislation “would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump ruling presented. With this glaring and partisan overreach, Congress has an obligation – and a constitutional authority – to act as a check and balance to the judicial branch,” Schumer said.
A release from Schumer's office said the legislation, as of Thursday, had 34 co-sponsors. They included Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who was a co-chairman of President Joe Biden's now-defunct re-election campaign.
The bill faces an uphill battle to pass through Congress, as Republicans control the House and generally have been aligned with Trump.
Biden also revealed this week a proposal to reform the Supreme Court that included term limits, an enforceable ethics code, and a push for an amendment to crack down on presidential immunity.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) responded by calling the plan “dead on arrival” in the House.
“It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Court's recent decisions,” Johnson said. “This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris Administration is dead on arrival in the House.”
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Make sure if this passes they charge every president alive Biden, Obama !
Typical Chuckie over-reach. He’s just grandstanding, knowing that the House won’t pass it, and the Supreme Court itself will declare it unconstitutional as it would subordinate the judicial branch to the legislative branch, even though they are co-equal.