Schumer introduces bill to eliminate presidential immunity

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a bill to end presidential immunity, a legal provision that shields official presidential acts from prosecution.

In a ruling last month in the federal trial against Donald Trump for election interference, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump would have immunity, as some of the acts he was being tried for were considered presidential. 

Schumer's initiative takes aim at three birds with one stone: presidential immunity, Donald Trump and the Supreme Court. The senator wanted to make this clear: "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."

The "No Kings Act" would establish that Congress and not the Supreme Court determines who is subject to federal criminal laws, according to The Hill. The Supreme Court would also have no say on the rule's constitutionality, as attempts to challenge it would have to be directed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The campaign against presidential immunity

The initiative is another step in the Democratic crusade against presidential immunity. Just three days before Schumer's No Kings Act announcement, Biden announced three judicial reform measures: two amendments to the Supreme Court (the introduction of a term limit on judges' tenure and a binding code of conduct) and a constitutional amendment to eliminate presidential immunity. 

Both bills are unlikely to pass the threshold necessary to become law. However, several analysts point out that they will serve as a talking point during the election and begin normalize the idea of reforming the country's highest court.