Congressional Democrats denounced the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling giving former President Donald Trump some immunity from criminal prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a 6-3 decision, the high court’s Republican-appointed majority ruled Trump has absolute immunity, but only for those core constitutional powers considered official acts. It will be up to the trial judge to determine which acts are official versus unofficial and thereby protected from prosecution by special counsel Jack Smith.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the ruling a “disgraceful decision by the MAGA Supreme Court,” leaning into the anti-court messaging that has been adopted since Trump-appointed justices delivered the deciding votes to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Republicans regarded Monday’s ruling as a matter of “common sense.”
“Treason or incitement of an insurrection should not be considered a core constitutional power afforded to a president,” Schumer said. “This decision undermines the credibility of the Supreme Court and suggests that political influence trumps all in our courts today.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the court ruling “disastrous,” while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she planned to file articles of impeachment against the Republican-appointed justices and accused them of being “consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control.” The articles lack the votes to pass in the GOP-controlled House.
“Today’s ruling represents an assault on American democracy. It is up to Congress to defend our nation from this authoritarian capture,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I intend on filing articles of impeachment upon our return.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) promised that House Democrats “will engage in aggressive oversight and legislative activity with respect to the Supreme Court to ensure that the extreme, far-right justices in the majority are brought into compliance with the Constitution.”
Many Democrats cited a scathing liberal dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling “reshapes the institution of the presidency” and “makes a mockery” of the idea no man is above the law. Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the Republican-appointed justices in the majority, accused Sotomayor of striking a “tone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the Court actually does today.”
“Let the president violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends,” Sotomayor wrote. “In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.”
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) said Sotomayor “summed up perfectly what MAGA people and this MAGA Court want for Donald Trump.”
“The danger and magnitude of this decision cannot be understated,” Velazquez added.
Republicans, including Trump, lauded the outcome, which is expected to delay Smith’s election subversion case against the former president until after the November election.
“BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee wrote on Truth Social.
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In a celebratory post on his social platform, Trump said the Supreme Court decision “should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me.”
“Today’s ruling by the court is a victory for former President Trump and all future presidents, and another defeat for President Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice and Jack Smith,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said. “This decision is based on the obviously unique power and position of the presidency and comports with the Constitution and common sense.”