‘The President Is Now a King’: Democrats Back Chuck Schumer’s Bill to Undo Trump’s Immunity

Schumer has introduced legislation that reaffirms that U.S. presidents do not have full immunity for criminal actions — and that presidents can, therefore, be tried in a court of law if necessary.

The act also explains that Congress gets to determine when and to whom federal criminal law is applied, rather than the Supreme Court.

The court clarified that unofficial acts done by a president can result in the president facing prosecution if he commits a crime.

After all, the president can commit any crime while they are president and not face any prosecution — as long as it is an official act.

The decision grants former presidents no immunity for private acts. However, Trump denied any wrongdoing and claimed immunity. The current political makeup of the Supreme Court was brought in by Trump, who brought in a majority-Conservative bloc during his presidency.

She added that this decision “makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law.”

Sotomayor warned that a president could order the assassination of a political opponent, for example, and face no consequences. Legal experts said the ruling was an effective “license for dictatorship” for those willing to abuse their presidential office.

However, Roberts also said that the president “is not above the law,” regardless of this ruling.

Many critics of Trump have claimed that the former president will now have the backing of the court to do whatever he wants. Trump has already said that he will be a dictator on “day one.”

The Justice Department has a case against Trump for his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election in which he lost his office as president. Trump described the Supreme Court’s decision as a “BIG WIN” on his X account.

The charges were related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in the run-up to the violent storming of the Capitol. The Justice Department’s case against Trump aimed to hold him accountable for trying to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

The case chronicles a campaign of lies about the election results. Even after the insurrection, Trump used the violence as a reason to delay counting the votes showing that he lost the presidential election.

The U.S. government is comprised of checks and balances. Therefore, Congress can now balance out the power that the court has given to the president.

It is laid out in the legislation that the Supreme Court cannot ignore the will of Congress. The bill states that the Supreme Court “shall have no appellate jurisdiction” over the act. This means the Supreme Court cannot declare the bill unconstitutional in order to dismiss it.

Joe Biden called on lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity. 

He said, “Given the dangerous and consequential implications of the court’s ruling, legislation would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump ruling presented.”

Recently, Biden proposed reforms to the Supreme Court whereby the justices would receive term limits. Biden also put forward a legally enforceable code of ethics for the judges in response to several scandals involving the justices.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said that President Joe Biden’s proposal to limit presidential immunity, as well as enforce ethics on the court, would “shred the Constitution.”

The government is currently incredibly divided among party lines, so even Democrats are aware that this bill won’t pass.

Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York introduced a constitutional amendment aiming to undo the court’s ruling. “Presidents are not monarchy, they are not tyrants and shall not be immune,” said Morelle in a statement.

The amendment would also prohibit a president from pardoning themselves. Morelle said: “At its core, our nation relies on the principle that no American stands above another in the eyes of the law.”

A constitutional amendment would be even more difficult to pass. An action like this would require a two-thirds vote in the House and the Senate. After that, an amendment would need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. This process can take years.

Therefore, even though this act won’t pass, Schumer and the Democrats are still fighting for it to show the court — and Republican lawmakers — that they aren’t letting this court ruling stand.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, said the reforms are needed as “there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court.”