by Misty Severi
Democratic New York Rep. Joe Morelle announced Monday that he will file a constitutional amendment that will virtually invalidate the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that presidents have presidential immunity for some “official acts,” but not unofficial ones, which means they cannot be prosecuted for “official acts.” However, it did not specify what constitutes official versus unofficial acts.
Critics of the new ruling claim that the high court has essentially made it so a president is “above the law” because they cannot be prosecuted for their official actions under normal law, according to The Hill. But sitting presidents who commit crimes while in office can still be impeached and removed by the Senate.
“I will introduce a constitutional amendment to reverse SCOTUS’ harmful decision and ensure that no president is above the law,” Morelle wrote on X. “This amendment will do what SCOTUS failed to do—prioritize our democracy.”
Morelle’s constitutional amendment is one of the only ways to challenge the Supreme Court’s decision, because the court is the final arbiter of the law. Rulings can be also altered by a new court ruling.
The Supreme Court’s decision was the result of former President Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
It is not clear what actions will officially be protected, but Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said some cases are extremely clear. For example, the president killing a terrorist is protected, but Trump’s actions in his hush money case were not protected.
“Where we have problems is when [Trump’s] trying to, he claims, enforce the laws, but he’s enforcing them in a way that the prosecution believes are helpful to him politically,” Dershowitz said on the “Just The News, No Noise” TV show. “But the court had a very important sentence, it says in assessing the difference between personal and official acts, you cannot look to the president’s motive. You have to look at objective acts.”
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Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.
Photo “Rep. Joe Morelle” by Rep. Joe Morelle.
