In an attempt to overturn Supreme Court immunity ruling, Schumer introduces No Kings Act

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will introduce a bill Thursday that would reaffirm that presidents do not have immunity from criminal charges, an effort to overturn a landmark Supreme Court decision last month.

Schumer’s No Kings Act would seek to overturn that decision by declaring that presidents are not immune from criminal law and making clear that Congress, not the Supreme Court, decides to whom federal criminal law applies.

The court’s conservative majority ruled July 1 that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their official duties — a decision that threw into doubt the Justice Department’s case against former Republican President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Schumer, R-New York, said Congress has the duty and constitutional authority to review the Supreme Court’s decision.

“Given the dangerous and serious implications of the court’s ruling, the quickest and most effective way to correct the grave precedent that Trump’s ruling sets would be through legislation,” he said.

” READ MORE: Explaining the US Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity and what it means for Trump’s ability to stand trial

The Senate bill, which has more than two dozen Democratic co-sponsors, comes after Democratic President Joe Biden called on lawmakers earlier this week to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity, as well as establish term limits and an enforceable code of ethics for the court’s nine justices. Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., recently proposed the constitutional amendment in the House.

The Supreme Court’s decision on immunity caught Washington by surprise and sparked acute opposition Liberal Supreme Court justices warn of threats to democracy, especially as Trump seeks to return to the White House.

Trump celebrated the decision as a “BIG VICTORY” on his social media platform, and congressional Republicans rallied around him. Without GOP support, Schumer’s bill has little chance of passing the narrow chamber.

Speaking about Biden’s proposal, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Biden’s proposal would “destroy the Constitution.”

Even harder would be to pass a constitutional amendment. Such a resolution requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, highly unlikely in this time of divided government and ratification by three-fourths of the states. The process could take several years.

Democrats still see the proposals as a warning to the court and a move that will mobilize their voters ahead of the presidential election.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump in the November election, said earlier this week that the reforms were necessary because “the Supreme Court is facing a clear crisis of confidence.”

The title of Schumer’s bill refers to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion in the case, in which she stated that “with every exploit of official power, the president is now king above the law.”

The decision, Sotomayor said, “makes a mockery of the principle at the heart of our Constitution and system of government that no one is above the law.”

In the ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that “our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential authority, entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within his ultimate and exclusive constitutional authority.”

Roberts, however, insisted that the president “is not above the law.”