The U.S. Senate held a hearing Tuesday on the Supreme Court’s profoundly misguided ruling in Donald Trump’s immunity case.

Here’s how Senator Dick Durbin, chair of the Judiciary Committee, summed up the ruling:

“Most of the conduct at the heart of [the] Watergate scandal — the obstruction of justice, wiretapping, cover-up, and the misuse of government agencies — could be described as official actions that would be presumptively immune under this court decision.”

In other words, Richard Nixon would be immune today.

And Watergate — a term so associated with egregious misconduct that all it takes to indicate that something is an obvious scandal is adding “-gate” to its name — would be a forgotten footnote in American history.

With its absurd immunity ruling, the Supreme Court has in effect given U.S. presidents sweeping power to break the law with impunity — the kind of power heretofore associated with foreign despots, dictators, and kings.

We simply cannot let this stand.

A quick timeline as a reminder of how we got here:

July 1
The Supreme Court issues its profoundly misguided ruling in Donald Trump’s immunity case, in effect giving U.S. presidents sweeping power to break the law with impunity — the kind of power heretofore associated with foreign despots, dictators, and kings.

July 25
Public Citizen announces a bold new initiative to win a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court’s absurd immunity ruling and restore the foundational principle that no one — not Donald Trump, not any president — is above the law.

July 29
President Biden and Vice President Harris both call for substantive reform regarding the Supreme Court, including an amendment.

We’re already seeing extensive media coverage of the campaign for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s dangerous immunity ruling in outlets like ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, The New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, PBS, Politico, Time Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many others.

We’ll say it as plainly as we can:

No president should have anything close to the kind of immunity the Supreme Court has conferred on the office. Not Donald Trump. Not Joe Biden. Not Kamala Harris. Not anyone who holds the office. Not ever.

So the American people have a choice to make — a choice that could not be more critical. Do we consent to be subjects of a de facto king, or do we fight to overturn the Supreme Court’s absurd immunity ruling and to restore the foundational principle that no one — including any U.S. president — is above the law?

It’s obvious: We have to overturn this ruling. And the most surefire way to do that is with a constitutional amendment. Now, winning a constitutional amendment will not be easy. It is not supposed to be easy.

We know something about “not easy” here at Public Citizen. Just to give you one example we’re sort of famous for: Today, nobody would buy — and no company would try to sell — a new car without airbags. That was us. We battled Detroit for decades. And we didn’t stop until we won.

These are the initial steps in our just-launched campaign for a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme’s Court’s disastrous ruling in Donald Trump’s immunity case:

• Through our unparalleled lobbying expertise and by mobilizing Public Citizen’s 500,000 supporters, we will keep the pressure on members of Congress — in the House and Senate alike — to push the amendment through the legislative process.

• We will work with our allies in the Not Above the Law coalition to support an amendment and to activate their supporters. (Public Citizen helped found the Not Above the Law coalition — a diverse, nationwide group of over 100 partner organizations — back in 2017 in recognition that holding Trump accountable would require a coordinated, sustained movement.)

• Calling on our 50-plus years of success engaging the media in vital causes, we will continue generating press focus — across traditional print and broadcast journalism as well as leading social media platforms — on how extreme the ruling is and how an amendment is key to counteracting it.

We said above that winning a constitutional amendment will not be, and is not supposed to be, easy.

One way that plays out comes down to this: democracy can’t be saved with good ideas, hard work, and a never-give-up attitude alone.

There are unavoidable, real-world financial costs to a campaign this big and this important.

And that’s where we need help right now, at the outset of such a major undertaking.

So, if you can, please donate today. Anything you can chip in — $5 or $25, $50 or $100, $500 or even more — will make a difference.

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If donating today is not a good fit, that’s okay. Either way, we hope you appreciate knowing a little more about the work we’re doing together. And thank you for being part of this shared project called Public Citizen.

For democracy,

- Robert Weissman & Lisa Gilbert, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
 
 
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