50 signatures reached
To: Rep. John Larson, Sen. Murphy, Sen. Blumenthal, Governor Lamont, Rep. Schiff, Rep. Booker, Rep. Baldwin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Pelosi, Rep. Barbara Lee, Gov. Whitmer, Sen. E. Warren,
No one including the President or former President is above the law
In light of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court dated July 1,2024, entitled Trump v. United States, granting immunity to the current and past Presidents of the United States for acts that are in their official capacity, it is essential to the survival of the American Democracy that we amend the Constitution, Article II Section I as follows: after the words “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. However, no President or past president shall be immune from prosecution for any illegal acts which if committed by an ordinary citizen would be a crime under federal or state law. If a President or past President has committed such an act that would be a violation of either state or federal law, he or she shall immediately be prosecuted by the appropriate authority and shall stand trial so long as the statute of limitations has not expired.
Why is this important?
In the July 1, 2024 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. United States, a partisan court, deciding 6-3 along political lines has given a U.S. President and any former President complete immunity from criminal acts committed in his or her official capacity. The Court completely failed to define what it meant by official capacity. Worse yet, the Court eliminated a prosecutor’s right to prove intent in the commission of the cirme. As Justice Sotomayor in her dissent notes, the decision “makes a mockery of the princiiple, foundational to our Constitution, and system of Government that no man is above the law.” “…Whenever the President wields the enormous power of his office, the majority says, the criminal law (at least presumptively) cannot touch him.”” In a well written and reasoned dissent she recounts the history of how our Constitution came to contain a provision for a President and the powers of the President. With respect to more modern times she reviewed the Nixon case and the Regan case regarding the Iran Contra debacle. Neither President was given immunity. And perhaps no one else has more appropriately concluded that the majority has anointed the President with the autocratic powers of a King such as King George II against whom the American people rebelled, and which resulted in the creation of the United States of America. Imagine this. Our President now has the same powers as King Henry VIII of England. She he or she dislike what any person is doing, well, off with her head! No one can stop such action from the President. Thus, passage of this Amendment is essential now to preserve our democracy.