Bill scrapping presidential immunity ruling poses challenge to SCOTUS authority

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Democrats on Thursday began following through on President Joe Biden’s commitment to Supreme Court reform, bringing forward a bill that would reverse the high court’s controversial decision to shield presidents from prosecution for official acts.

But the measure, championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, would also slap limits on the high court’s authority to hear certain cases related to presidential immunity or criminal prosecution of the country’s chief executive.

If made law, Democrats’ “No Kings Act” would write over the Supreme Court’s July decision to give former President Donald Trump and future presidents immunity for their core powers of office as well as “official actions,” which the justices did not enumerate. The bill would reaffirm that presidents and vice presidents do not enjoy immunity for actions that violate U.S. criminal law and adds that Congress has final say on whether to prosecute a president.

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Schumer slammed the court’s “bewildering” ruling and held up the Democrats’ bill as a partial antidote to a Supreme Court which he said has lost public confidence.

“All of us in school were taught that there are no kings in America,” said the New York senator, “but one month ago, the MAGA Supreme Court effectively placed a crown over Donald Trump’s head.”

Beyond simply crossing out the high court’s decision on presidential immunity, though, the No Kings Act would also block the Supreme Court from hearing challenges to the proposed law’s constitutionality. The bill would also bar the court from using the “official acts” doctrine to interfere with criminal proceedings against a president or vice president.

Schumer argued Thursday that the Constitution gives Congress explicit authority to limit the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction.

To accomplish this, Democrats are leveraging the so-called “exceptions clause,” located in Article 3 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the authority to limit the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction. Rather than appealing to the Supreme Court, Democrats said, constitutional challenges to the new presidential immunity statute would be litigated in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lawmakers have in recent years used their power to restrict the authority of federal courts, but not the Supreme Court. In last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin successfully offered an amendment giving the D.C. Circuit sole jurisdiction over challenges to the Mountain Valley Pipeline planned for his state.

In his remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer also pushed back on potential criticism from Republicans who have argued that congressional efforts to rein in the Supreme Court threaten constitutional separation of powers. Democrats have “a very strong argument” that Congress can undo high court rulings by statute, rather than by constitutional amendment, he told his colleagues.

It’s been done before, Democrats point out. Congress in 1990 passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law that overrode the Supreme Court’s 1985 ruling that discriminating against people with disabilities did not violate their 14th Amendment rights. Lawmakers are currently pursuing similar legislation that would codify abortion rights following the court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , which overturned Roe v. Wade .

Gabe Roth, director of reform-minded advocacy group Fix the Court, praised the Democrats’ bill.

“These types of liberty reforms — that is, ensuring it’s the people and not the courts who’ll decide if a president is above the law — make a lot of sense to me,” he told Courthouse News, “seeing as how rule by the one or the nine is not consistent with our founding.”

Alex Aronson, director of Court Accountability, also applauded the measure, saying that lawmakers have long “abdicated” their power to the judiciary.

“It is heartening to see Congress exercising its clear constitutional authority over the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement, “reinforcing the vital checks and balances that keep each branch in check.”

Efforts to wipe away presidential immunity are just one leg of President Biden’s three-pronged approach to court reform, which he unveiled this week. The White House has also backed efforts to implement 18-year term limits for the justices and said it would support legislation forcing the court to adopt a binding code of ethics.

Democrats have already been at work for months on bills that would accomplish these aims.

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act would mandate the justices draft an enforceable ethics code and open it for public comment. Whitehouse’s measure, which Republicans blocked on the Senate floor in June, would also establish a tribunal of circuit court judges to review ethics complaints against the high court.

Senate leaders have said they would soon bring the bill back up for a vote.

Supreme Court reform is a political nonstarter with the GOP, however. Both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson have declared any legislation addressing the issue “dead on arrival” in their respective chambers.

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