Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is introducing legislation reaffirming presidents don't have immunity for criminal actions, an attempt to reverse the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last month.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will introduce legislation Thursday reaffirming that presidents do not have immunity for criminal actions, an attempt to reverse the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last month.

Schumer’s No Kings Act would attempt to invalidate the decision by declaring that presidents are not immune from criminal law and clarifying that Congress, not the Supreme Court, determines to whom federal criminal law is applied.

The court’s conservative majority decided 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 Republican former President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Schumer, of New York, said that Congress has an obligation and the constitutional authority to check the Supreme Court on its decision.

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    You’re completely misunderstanding the point. It isn’t about what’s right; the principles behind the NKA are without a doubt the right principles. But it’s about what actually accomplishes something.

    Passing a law that has absolutely no chance of actually having an effect (because a future president Trump could just hand-wave it away with an EO or file a suit to bring it up to the Supreme Court which will immediately strike it down) isn’t “doing what’s right”. It’s political theater. It’s making people believe you’re doing something when you damn well know what you’re doing will have no real world impact at all.

    That is where I have the problem. Engaging in feel-good political stunts that have 0% chance of having an effect, then saying “well, shucks, we tried” when it inevitably fails isn’t “doing what’s right”.

    And no, I’m not saying to capitulate to the GOP. We’ve already seen what that gets. I’m just saying that this entire idea is useless because the next GOP president (Trump or whoever the next wannabe-autocrat is) will (Not might. Will.) do exactly one of two things on the first day in office.

    • Issue an Executive Order nullifying the No Kings Act, based on the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential Immunity, and then all but daring Congress to either impeach him or sue through the court system, which will end up in front of the exact same Supreme Court that gave themselves and Trump those powers in the first place, who will probably invalidate the NKA at warp speed.

    • File a lawsuit himself to ask the Supreme Court to strike the law down, and since they were the ones to grant Trump that power in the first place, they are almost guaranteed to oblige.

    That’s it. If Trump gets elected and one of those things doesn’t happen within the first week if not day, I will personally post a video of me cutting off the left body part of your choice. Without the backing of being a constitutional amendment, any NKA-type of legislation is toothless and all-but-unenforceable political theater.