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It may not make a difference, but ... [1]

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Date: 2024-07-01  

Democrats in Congress should immediately introduce legislation on the following lines:

No officer of the United States, including but not limited to the President of the United States, shall enjoy any immunity from prosecution or punishment for any criminal acts committed in office, whether or not those acts are characterized as official acts or unofficial acts.

The legislation should also state, in a separate section, that in any criminal prosecution against the President of the United States, the majority opinion in Trump v. United States decided on July 1, 2024 shall be disregarded by all lower courts as having no support in the United States Constitution or in law.

It won’t matter in the current federal cases against Trump. The fix is in, as far as Republican judges are concerned. And even though it was wrongly decided, it is now the law of the case in Trump’s DC trial. Besides, it’s unlikely that Democrats could get it through Congress this year. However, it would be an issue that every Democrat in Congress (or seeking a seat in Congress) could run on.



Going forward, such legislation would create some safeguard against criminal behavior by future Presidents. No president would be able to count on a different Supreme Court coming to their aid by voiding the statute. And it almost certainly will be a different Supreme Court looking at it, as long as Joe Biden wins this fall. It’s unlikely that Biden will commit any crimes in his second term. It might also be that other Presidents won’t want to take the chance. I doubt the constitutionality of the statute would get tested in the field in the next decade, and probably even longer than that. By then, with Thomas, Roberts, and/or Alito possibly gone (or even the court expanded), a different Supreme Court majority might have some respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.

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