Chuck Schumer Considers New Bill to Counter Trump Immunity Decision

WASHINGTON — Accusing conservative Supreme Court justices of placing “a crown on Donald Trump’s head” that allows him to commit crimes with impunity, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he is considering a legislative response to last week’s court ruling.

“We Democrats will not let the Supreme Court’s decision go unanswered. The Constitution clearly states that Congress has the power to check the judiciary through appropriate legislation. I will work with my colleagues on legislation that would classify Trump’s election subversion as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.

Schumer spoke as the Senate returned from recess, a week after the Supreme Court handed Trump a landslide victory in a 6-3 decision under ideological principles that hold that presidents enjoy legal immunity from prosecution for “official acts” performed in the course of their jobs, but not for unofficial acts. Those terms are open to interpretation, and Schumer is seeking to characterize Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results as outside the scope of his presidential duties.

“We are doing this because we believe that in the United States, no president should be free to overturn an election against the will of the people, regardless of the views of conservative judges,” Schumer said. “As we work on this important issue, we will also continue to work on other proposals to reassert Congress’s Article I authority to rein in abuses of our federal judiciary. The American people are tired, just plain tired, of judges who think they are not being held accountable.”

The details of the bill have yet to be determined, and there would undoubtedly be obstacles to advancing the legislation in the Senate, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in a chamber that requires 60 votes to pass.

In addition to Congress, the White House told NBC News after the Supreme Court decision that it was considering its own options for how to respond.

“We are currently reviewing the decision and will certainly explore what can be done to address it to better preserve democracy and the rule of law in the future, given this dangerous precedent,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said.