WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday announced a bill that would ensure that presidents do not have criminal immunity.
The legislation is a direct response to the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that former President Donald Trump has some immunity for aspects of his presidential conduct. However, even if the bill passes the Senate, it would face an uphill climb in the House, which is controlled by Republican allies of Trump.
“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,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “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.”
The legislation, dubbed the “No Kings Act,” would ensure that neither sitting nor former presidents and vice presidents are entitled to immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes. The bill has more than two dozen Democratic signers.
If it is passed, the legislation would make it clear that Congress has the power to determine “to whom federal criminal laws may be applied,” not the Supreme Court, according to the bill’s outline provided by Schumer’s office.
In his statement explaining his reasoning for the legislation, Schumer called the Supreme Court’s decision about Trump’s immunity “disastrous,” arguing that “the Supreme Court threw out centuries of precedent and anointed Trump and subsequent presidents as kings above the law.”
Chief Justice John Roberts said in his majority opinion for the court that lower courts needed to determine through additional proceedings what Trump could face prosecution for.
Roberts wrote that “the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office.”
Democrats strongly objected, and President Joe Biden on Monday called for a constitutional amendment to “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sided with Trump and praised the court’s ruling as “a victory for former President Trump and all future presidents, and another defeat for President Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice and Jack Smith.”
“The Court clearly stated that presidents are entitled to immunity for their official acts,” Johnson said on X at the time. “This decision is based on the obviously unique power and position of the presidency, and comports with the Constitution and common sense.”
Democrats do not hold supermajorities in Congress or in most state legislatures, meaning the odds of ratifying a new constitutional amendment are very slim.