Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday introduced the “No Kings Act,” a bid to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.
The bill — which would also require Congress, not SCOTUS, to hear appeals on presidential immunity — is a direct response to the June decision that has enraged Democrats. The conservative justices ruled that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for actions related to the core powers of their office, and said there is at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts more broadly. The justices ruled presidents have no immunity for personal acts, but left it up to lower courts to decide what constitutes an official or personal act. Democrats have argued that could allow Donald Trump or any other future president to commit widespread crimes with no accountability like a monarch.
Schumer in the morning said he and 33 other Democrats back the “No Kings Act,” which is meant to address those concerns.
“This legislation is as simple as the name it bears. It reaffirms that presidents do not have immunity from violations of criminal law, and removes the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to hear appeals related to the presidential immunity, which the Constitution explicitly empowers Congress to do,” Schumer said in a floor speech.
“The MAGA Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity was the very antithesis of the kind of accountability our framers envisioned,” the New York Democrat continued. “It just goes to show you what a morass the Supreme Court is in right now. They're in a mess. They're in an ethical morass, and they're in a substantive morass.”
