WASHINGTON — The White House is considering how to respond to the Supreme Court’s landmark immunity decision that handed President Donald Trump a major victory, as President Joe Biden warns that an unethical future president could abuse those powers.
“We are reviewing this decision and will consider what we can do in light of this dangerous precedent to better safeguard democracy and the rule of law in the future,” White House spokesman Ian Sams told NBC News.
Democrats were incensed by the 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, but when it came to taking action, party leaders have offered mixed messages and struggled to lay out a clear vision for what to do next, legislatively and otherwise, drawing criticism from some of their liberal allies.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) denounced the “disgraceful MAGA Supreme Court decision” but did not say whether he would take legislative action against it. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the Supreme Court had determined that the president “has legal immunity from abusing government power to commit fraud, such as by overturning the results of an election.”
“By ruling that Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for conduct involving discussions with Justice Department officials, the Supreme Court stripped the Justice Department of its precious independence and undermined its commitment to the rule of law,” he said.
When asked if he had any responses from the committee, Durbin’s office said he had nothing specific to announce.
The Justice Department declined to comment when asked whether it was working on developing legal guidance in light of the ruling.
Liberal advocates have been critical of the lack of faster action from Biden or Congress, even though they’ve known a decision was coming for months. Options are limited: The Biden administration can’t bind the president-elect to its own legal guidelines, and Democrats don’t have the power in Congress to pass legislation without Republican support or enforce subpoenas in the Senate, which they control.
Still, some allies had hoped Democrats would use their investigative powers to articulate a legislative vision and prepare a more aggressive message to rally voters in the 2024 election.
“This is a defining moment for American democracy. Republican judges … have rewritten the Constitution to give the president monarchical powers,” said Alex Aronson, executive director of the liberal group Court Accountability and former chief counsel to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. “Democrats have somehow been caught off guard in the face of this all-out assault on American democracy.”
He said Senate Democrats should have announced hearings and been prepared to conduct investigations into “corruption and conflicts of interest,” arguing that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in particular should have recused themselves (Thomas for his wife’s role in trying to overturn Biden’s win, and Alito for using an upside-down American flag in his home that was also used by the January 6 rioters). He also said they should have used the opportunity to solidify their support for imposing stricter ethics rules and constraints on the Supreme Court.
Alarmed Americans are “looking to their elected leaders in Congress, especially the Democratic-controlled Senate, to come up with real solutions,” Aronson said.
Democrats have a limited power in the House of Representatives because they are in a minority, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, has vowed his party will engage in “aggressive oversight and legislative action on the Supreme Court” to hold “far-right justices” “to the Constitution.”
Biden vows to ‘respect limits’ on power
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) is X, and the Supreme Court said,Corruption crisis out of control“and it is “It is the responsibility of Congress to protect the country from this authoritarian rule,” she said, adding that she plans to introduce articles of impeachment when she returns home. (Her office did not respond to questions about who she would like to impeach.)
Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) renewed her call for adding four seats to the Supreme Court. That proposal, the Judiciary Act, has only three sponsors and has added no more since last year.
In its decision, the Supreme Court handed Trump a major victory by holding that the president has presumed immunity for acts of official conduct. The ruling could postpone pending criminal trials until after the election, or even derail them altogether. Trump celebrated the ruling, posting on social media, “A huge victory for our Constitution and Democracy. Proud to be an American!” Many prominent Republicans similarly hailed the ruling, though some, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), remained silent.
In his speech on Monday, Biden promised to “respect the limits” on the king-like powers the Supreme Court has given the president, and warned that if Trump is returned he “will now have free reign to ignore the law.”
He said that means there are “virtually no limits on what a president can do.” He said he agreed with the liberal justices’ dissent, which noted that Trump’s lawyers had argued that ordering the military to assassinate a political opponent could be considered an official presidential act and therefore exempt from liability.
“The only limitations will be self-imposed by the president himself,” Biden said. “The American people must decide whether they want to entrust the presidency to Donald Trump again.”
Meanwhile, President Trump has cited the Supreme Court’s decision to move quickly to overturn his 34 felony convictions in New York state.
