'Dangerous': Senate mulls legislation to curb SCOTUS’ 'unprecedented' Trump immunity ruling

11 July 2024

Senate Democrats are responding forcefully to the Supreme Court of the United States' (SCOTUS) recent decision granting presidents total immunity for "official acts."

NBC News reported Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee is preparing to hold hearings to discuss the Trump v. United States decision the Supreme Court handed down earlier this month. Several months after oral arguments, all six Republican-appointed justices sided with former President Donald Trump's attorneys, who argued that a president could technically murder political opponents as long as a president did it within the official capacity of his office.

"During this upcoming hearing, we will examine the breadth of future misconduct that may be immunized from prosecution, consider the unprecedented nature of this immunity in American history, and discuss legislative solutions to the dangers of this decision," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in a public statement.

"This dangerous decision immunizes presidents who commit crimes, no matter how serious, as long as they claim their offenses were 'official acts,'" he added.

This marks a major development from Durbin and the committee, which has jurisdiction over federal courts. No details of any legislative proposals have been introduced, though NBC reported earlier this week that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) was considering legislation in response to the decision.

With the immunity decision on the books, the former president is now almost certain to avoid his D.C. election interference going to trial before Election Day. However, Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has not dropped his four-count felony indictment, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan still technically has discretion over whether Trump's actions on the day of and in the days leading up to the January 6, 2021 insurrection constitute "official acts."

Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori, who handled white-collar crimes at the DOJ, said this week that Chutkan has options on how to move forward with the case, citing "statutes [that] Congress has provided in these areas" as well as "potentially historical practice, what other presidents have done, what former government officials and potentially even scholars have to say about the scope of the president's duties are in this context."

The immunity decision may also carry over to Trump's prior 34 felony convictions in New York. Even though Trump was scheduled to be sentenced this week, Judge Juan Merchan moved his sentencing date to September in order for the court to determine how SCOTUS' immunity ruling may apply to Trump's convictions.

While the 34 convictions for falsification of business records pertained to acts Trump committed prior to taking office, defense lawyers are likely to argue that some of the evidence prosecutors introduced throughout the trial proceedings involved official acts, meaning jurors should not have been able to base their decision to convict based on that particular evidence.

Click here to read NBC's report in its entirety.

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