Have you ever noticed that virtually every photo of Chuck Schumer looks like a medieval rendering of a demon? That evil, smug grin is at once repellent and chilling, a promise of infinite evil to come. And so it is again:

Graphic: Chuck Schumer official photo. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that he and other Senate Democrats will work to advance legislation to strip former President Trump of the immunity he was granted under a recent Supreme Court ruling protecting a president’s official acts from criminal prosecution.

Schumer, invoking Congress’s powers to regulate the courts, said Democrats are working on legislation to classify Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election as “unofficial acts” so they do not merit immunity from criminal prosecution under the high court’s recent 6-3 decision.

That a Senator who does all he can to ignore and/or tear down the Constitution would so much as suggest something like this is unsurprising, provoking gallic shrugs and “so what else is new?” from Normal Americans. It’s also a clear indication Donald Trump lives rent-free in Schumer’s head, gleefully pulling the “terminal Trump Derangement Syndrome” lever.

Graphic: X screenshot

Schumer said the court’s conservative justices had “effectively placed a crown on Donald Trump’s head,” putting him above the law and making him “in many ways untouchable.”

“I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump’s election subversion acts as unofficial acts not subject to immunity,” he announced.

Obviously, Schumer has not read the Supreme Court’s reasoned and middle-of-the-road immunity decision,  which was nothing more than common sense and a logical extension of Supreme Court precedence. Or, as with the Constitution, Schumer prefers to ignore the actual text and meaning of the decision, which says no such thing. Ironically, the Court’s decision was compelled by Biden’s handler’s weaponization of the DOJ and their lawfare against Donald Trump. Schumer is in bad company in this, as Associate Justice Sotomayor—the self-labeled “wise Latina”—either didn’t read, or is ignoring, the majority decision too.

Let’s examine a few reasons why what Schumer is proposing is, as is his standard operating procedure, unconstitutional and un-American.

*The Supreme Court is a coequal branch of government, specifically tasked with interpreting the law, a power Congress lacks. The separation of powers exists, at least for the moment. In ruling the Constitution grants every president—not just Donald Trump—immunity, the Court leaves the only pathway for change a constitutional amendment. Congress doesn’t get to overturn Supreme Court decisions with legislation, which the Court can, in turn, overturn if constitutionally defective. 

*If the Congress can overturn presidential immunity, it doesn’t exist. If any president has committed “high crimes or misdemeanors,” impeachment is the remedy, a remedy which Schumer has tried twice—once when Trump was out of office?!--and failed.

*In pursuing a hateful, transitory political goal, Schumer would deprive future Democrat presidents of immunity. Of course, he’s planning to have a one-party state, so he thinks he doesn’t have to worry about that sort of thing.

*Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution provides:

No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.

A bill of attainder is a legislative act that targets an individual or group, criminalizing them as a means of bypassing the courts and denying them due process and every other constitutional protection. In this case, Schumer would target Donald Trump, depriving him of immunity as a means of keeping failing lawfare alive.

An ex post facto –after the fact--law is a law that would prosecute people for acts that weren’t crimes when they were committed. That violates the common law and constitutional principle that people must have reasonable warning of what is illegal before being charged with a violation of law. That, as well as overstepping their lawful authority, is why ATF’s arbitrary and capricious banning of stabilizing braces is unlawful. Government doesn’t get to declare entirely lawful property unlawful and then prosecute people for possessing it.

Perhaps Schumer and the Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) that will support his bill are merely trying to feed their base raw, red meat prior to the election.  It’s unlikely such a bill could pass the Congress. It’s possible one or two D/s/cs—particularly those facing tough elections--might consider the future and the Constitution and vote against it. It’s also probable this is just another attempt to continually harass Trump, should it pass, requiring higher court review that could drag on for years.

In any case, it’s more evidence that D/s/c efforts to preserve “our democracy,” have nothing to do with preserving the Constitution and the representative republic it establishes.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.