WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will introduce legislation Thursday stating that presidents do not have immunity in criminal actions, an attempt to reverse the impact of a recent Supreme Court decision.

The effort has little chance of becoming law at this time, as Senate Republicans are likely to vote against it.

But Democrats see the proposals as a warning to the court and a topic that will interest their voting base during presidential election season.

Schumer’s No Kings Act attempts to set the expectation that presidents are not immune from criminal law and that Congress, rather than the Supreme Court, determines to whom federal criminal law is applied.

The court’s conservative majority decided July 1 that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their official duties — a decision that threw into doubt the Justice Department’s case against Republican former President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Schumer, of New York, said that Congress has an obligation and the constitutional authority to check the Supreme Court on its decision.

”Given the dangerous and consequential implications of the court’s ruling, legislation would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump ruling presented,” he said.

The Senate bill has more than two dozen Democratic cosponsors.

Earlier this week, Democratic President Joe Biden called on lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity, along with establishing term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the court’s nine justices.

Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., recently proposed a constitutional amendment in the House.

A constitutional amendment would be even more difficult to pass. Such a resolution takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, along with ratification by three-fourths of the states.

That process can take several years and sometimes stalls out.

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