Senate Democrats introduce 'No Kings Act' to counter court's immunity ruling

Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleagues on Thursday sought to counter the Supreme Court 's recent controversial ruling on presidential immunity by introducing the "No Kings Act."

The text of the act clarifies that U.S. presidents and vice presidents do not have immunity for actions that violate federal criminal law while in office and clarifies that Congress, not the Supreme Court, is the arm of government responsible for determining to whom federal criminal laws may be applied.

"In a dangerous and devastating ruling, the MAGA Supreme Court has once again subverted the will of the American people, and the very idea of democracy itself," Schumer said in a statement .

"The Founders were explicit -- no man in America shall be a king. Yet, in their disastrous decision, the Supreme Court threw out centuries of precedent and anointed Trump and subsequent presidents as kings above the law," he said.

The proposed bill comes in response to a landmark decision issued by the court's conservative majority last month finding that former president Donald Trump has absolute immunity in executing his core constitutional powers, such as the appointment of ambassadors, as well as the presumption of immunity for official acts related to his role as president.

The decision was in response to Trump's claims that his acts relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol by a mob of his supporters and his attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election are covered by presidential immunity.

Those claims previously had been unanimously rejected by a three-judge panel of U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, which wrote on Feb. 6, "We cannot accept former President Trump's claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power -- the recognition and implementation of election results."

But the Supreme Court's July 1 ruling overturned that decision.

The move was blasted by the panel's liberal minority as "reshaping the institution of the presidency" as well as by President Joe Biden , who called it a "dangerous precedent" and warned it will allow presidents to "no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States."

Democrats have incorporated the decision as a key part of their 2024 campaign theme that another Trump term in office would constitute a dire threat to the nation's democratic institutions.

Biden on Monday issued a call for limits on presidential immunity, term limits for Supreme Court justices and a "binding" code of ethics to curb conflicts of interest on the court.

Schumer on Thursday agreed with assessments that the court's immunity ruling has revealed a partisan agenda.

"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," he said. "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."

Under the measure, it would be affirmed that no president or vice president, either former or sitting, would be entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for actions that violate the country's criminal laws. It would remove the high court's appellate jurisdiction for any challenging the constitutionality of the legislation. Instead, the ultimate arbiter of its constitutionality would be the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The No Kings Act has 34 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate but has little chance of advancing in the Republican-controlled House.

"It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Court's recent decisions," House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday . "This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris Administration is dead on arrival in the House."