Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is working on legislation which would strip Donald Trump of the immunity granted to to him and other presidents in a recent ruling by the United States Supreme Court. What makes the senate majority leader think he has the authority to override a co-equal branch of government and the highest court in the land?
Is it possible that Schumer is just doing this as a show of solidarity for his MSNBC-watching, Trump-hating voters?
The Hill reports:
Schumer pushing bill to strip Trump of court-granted immunitySenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that he and other Senate Democrats will work to advance legislation to strip former President Trump of the immunity he was granted under a recent Supreme Court ruling protecting a president’s official acts from criminal prosecution.Schumer, invoking Congress’s powers to regulate the courts, said Democrats are working on legislation to classify Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election as “unofficial acts” so they do not merit immunity from criminal prosecution under the high court’s recent 6-3 decision.“They incorrectly declared that former President Trump enjoys broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions he took while in office. They incorrectly declared that all future presidents are entitled to a breathtaking level of immunity so long as their conduct is ostensibly carried out in their official capacity as president,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.Schumer said the court’s conservative justices had “effectively placed a crown on Donald Trump’s head,” putting him above the law and making him “in many ways untouchable.”“I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” he announced.
When I was discussing this with Professor Jacobson, he pointed to this important part of the U.S. Constitution which Schumer’s legislation would violate – Article I, Section 9, Clause 3:
Clause 3No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
From the Annenberg Guide to the United States Constitution:
In the second and third clauses, the Constitution specifically guarantees rights to those accused of crimes. It provides that the privilege of a writ of habeas corpus, which allows a prisoner to challenge his or her imprisonment in court, cannot be suspended except in extreme circumstances such as rebellion or invasion, where the public is in danger. Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus has occurred only a few times in history. For example, President Lincoln suspended the writ during the Civil War. In 1871, it was suspended in nine counties in South Carolina to combat the Ku Klux Klan.Similarly, the Constitution specifically prohibits bills of attainder — laws that are directed against a specific person or group of persons, making them automatically guilty of serious crimes, such as treason, without a normal court proceeding. The ban is intended to prevent Congress from bypassing the courts and denying criminal defendants the protections guaranteed by other parts of the Constitution.In addition, the Constitution prohibits “ex post facto” laws — criminal laws that make an action illegal after someone has already taken it. This protection guarantees that individuals are warned ahead of time that their actions are illegal.
Bonchie comments at RedState:
I have no idea what constitutional power Schumer believes he has that would allow such a gambit to even begin to pass muster. Separation of powers exists, and the legislature has never been able to dictate what qualifies as an official act of the presidency. If it could, then there would be no actual official acts because any hostile Congress could arbitrarily decide on a whim to reverse any such qualification.If presidential immunity exists, and the Supreme Court says it does (at least on some level), then it logically can’t be overridden by the legislature. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be “immunity.” If a president has supposedly committed a violation worthy of punishment, there is already a remedy for that. It’s called impeachment, and Schumer and company have already failed in their pursuit of that regarding January 6th.Besides, the Republican-led House would never go along with any legislation reclassifying Trump’s actions so the gambit is dead in the water anyway.
Democrats have been waging a war on the U.S. Supreme Court for months and this is one of the reasons why. They have been laying the groundwork for just this sort of ridiculous measure.
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