WASHINGTON — Sen. Dick Durbin (D-In poor health.) introduced Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee will maintain a September listening to to have a look at “the instant authorized and coverage ramifications” of the Supreme Courtroom’s choice final month that grants Donald Trump full immunity for “official acts” he took as president.
“Throughout this upcoming listening to, we are going to look at the breadth of future misconduct which may be immunized from prosecution, think about the unprecedented nature of this immunity in American historical past, and talk about legislative options to the risks of this choice,” Durbin, the committee chairman, mentioned in an announcement.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee is not going to tolerate these justices cherry-picking their manner by way of textual content and historical past to impose their very own excessive imaginative and prescient of presidential energy on the American folks,” he mentioned.
Durbin didn’t give a particular date or the names of potential witnesses. However Senate Democrats are clearly desperate to do one thing that flexes the energy of the legislative department of presidency in response to the choice by the nation’s highest court docket. The Supreme Courtroom’s ruling on presidential immunity is so sweeping and obscure that authorized specialists have mentioned it opens the door for sitting presidents to do no matter they need with none accountability, together with one thing as excessive as assassinating a political rival.
“This harmful choice immunizes presidents who commit crimes, regardless of how critical, so long as they declare their offenses have been ‘official acts,’” mentioned Durbin. “The far-right justices accountable for this choice like to say that they’re guided by ‘textualism’ or ‘originalism,’ however the actuality is that they’re engaged in judicial activism unmoored from the textual content of the Structure and intentions of our framers.”
He added, “Congress can’t flip a blind eye to it.”
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) railed towards the Supreme Courtroom’s choice earlier within the day, citing Trump’s function in inciting an revolt on Jan. 6, 2021, as a part of his effort to steal the 2020 election by spreading a lie about widespread voter fraud.
“No free nation can condone a tyrant who abuses his workplace to attempt to cling to energy,” Schumer mentioned on the Senate flooring. “However that’s, in impact, what the conservative majority on the Supreme Courtroom has accomplished.”
The excellent news, mentioned the Senate majority chief, is that Congress has the authority to train sturdy checks on the judiciary by way of laws.
“We must always look into exactly that. One potential avenue: clarifying that Donald Trump’s election-subversion acts don’t depend as official acts of the presidency,” he mentioned. “Such a notion ought to hardly be controversial, and I’m working with my colleagues on laws to see what sort of proposals could be applicable.”
