On Monday, President Joe Biden unveiled a package of reforms targeting the United States Supreme Court. That package included a proposal to amend the Constitution to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting the president United States immunity from criminal prosecution for acts undertaken in their official capacity.
Biden dubbed that proposal “The No One Is Above the Law Amendment.” He said, “It would make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”
A White House statement explained that the amendment Biden wants adopted “will state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President.”
An article in The Hill rightly notes, “When the nation’s high court hands down a ruling on a constitutional issue, the judgment is virtually final, and decisions can only be altered with a constitutional amendment and a new ruling.”
Yet prospects for passage of Biden’s proposed amendment are bleak, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying that it would be “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives. Johnson's response could hardly have come as a surprise to the president or anyone who regards the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States as a constitutional abomination.
But Biden was right to propose the amendment. He was right to say that it would be consistent with “our Founders’ belief that the president’s power is limited, not absolute. We are a nation of laws — not of kings or dictators.”
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He was right to offer the American people the chance to exercise their ultimate authority over the Constitution and its meanings.
And the president's desire to amend the Constitution to correct the court’s presidential immunity decision is also consistent........