The Proposed Constitutional Amendment To Reverse The Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision: My Rewrite
Representative Terri Sewell has sponsored a Constitutional Amendment aimed at reversing the Supreme Court’s decision conferring the President of the United broad immunity for criminal acts committed while in office. You can read Sewell’s proposed Constitutional amendment HERE.
I certainly agree with Sewell’s intentions. However, I disagree with the language of the proposed amendment. In Section 1 Sewell attempts to do too much, and the result is an overly wordy mush that is confusing to understand.
Sewell starts by trying to do too much by extending the immunity bar to all officers of the United States including members of Congress. Doing so then requires her to carve out exception for the legislator’s immunity clause in Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution. There is no need for this. The Supreme Court’s immunity decision was quite clearly rooted in the supposed “unique position in the constitutional scheme” of the President. The Supreme Court’s decision extends only to the President. Muddling the Constitutional amendment with unnecessary and confusing verbiage, to solve a problem that does not exist, is not prudent. Let’s fix the real problem, not imagined ones.
Then there is a strange exception allowing a President to be immune if the “the alleged criminal act was authorized by valid Federal law.” This is redundant and unnecessary. If federal law authorized it, it is already not criminal.
On the other hand, I believe Section 2 of the proposed Constitutional amendment does not go far enough. It should limit a President’s pardoning power, not only to preclude him pardoning himself, but also to prohibit his pardoning coconspirators or accomplices. A President should not be able to get others to commit crimes on his behalf based on an assurance that he will pardon them.
Accordingly I offer a more pithy alternative to Sewell’s proposed Amendment. Mine would read as follows:
Section 1: Nothing in this Constitution shall be interpreted as conferring immunity to a former President of the United States for criminal acts committed while in office.
Section 2: The pardon power, described in Article II Section 2 of this Constitution, does not extend to a President pardoning himself or any person accused or convicted of a crime in which the President co-conspired or participated.
Section 3: While this amendment is self-executing, Congress has the power to enact legislation to facilitate the implementation of this amendment.
There you have it. A Constitutional amendment making the President a servant of the people, and subject to the laws of the people.
