Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing On Supreme Court Ruling In Donald Trump Immunity Case

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled “‘When the President Does It, that Means It’s Not Illegal’: The Supreme Court’s Unprecedented Immunity Decision.”  The hearing will explore the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States.

Key Quotes:

“Nearly two decades ago, then-Judge John Roberts came before this Committee for his confirmation hearing to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  I asked him about limits on the President’s power.  In response, he told me, under oath, ‘No man is above the law, not the President and not the Congress.’  During his hearing, Roberts also repeatedly emphasized the limited role of a judge—famously comparing it to an umpire calling balls and strikes.”

“But in 2024, Chief Justice Roberts authored the opinion in Trump v. United States, a game-changing act of judicial fiat that puts all future presidents above the law, protecting them from criminal prosecution for abusing the authority given to them for personal or political gain.  In plain language, the Court created three categories of varying degrees of presidential immunity.  Core presidential actions: absolutely immune.  Unofficial or private actions: not immune.  Actions within the ‘outer perimeter’ of official actions: presumptively immune.”

“The decision also protects any president by preventing prosecutors from using evidence related to conduct or acts that are immune to prosecute a president for acts not protected by immunity.  The Court also found that the President’s motives—corrupt or not—may not be questioned. So even if a president is peddling access to his office, prosecutors would find it nearly impossible to bring charges.”

“As Justice Amy Coney Barrett lamented, ‘[t]o make sense of charges alleging a quid pro quo, the jury must be allowed to hear about both the quid and the quo.’  And, in ruling that Donald Trump is, ‘absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials,’ the Court has stripped the Justice Department of its critical independence.”

“DOJ may now stand as a weapon to be wielded by a corrupt president against his political opponents. As the Committee demonstrated in Subverting Justice, our report about Trump pressuring DOJ to subvert the 2020 election, this is not some farfetched scenario.”

“So what does this all mean?  It means that any sitting president may hide behind their office for protection from prosecution for even the most egregious forms of wrongdoing.  It means effectively condoning Richard Nixon’s claim that, ‘when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.’”

“The Roberts Court’s judicial activism has also left us with limited options when dealing with a delusional or corrupt executive.  During the second Trump impeachment trial, the Senate Republican Leader stated, ‘We have a criminal justice system in this country.  We have civil litigation, and former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.’  But this is no longer the case, because the Trump v. United States ruling demolished our justice system’s ability to hold any president accountable for abuses of power.”

“Obstructing a federal criminal investigation of your campaign by firing your attorney general? Allowed.  Steering foreign governments to your family hotels and resorts in exchange for access to the White House?  Presumptively immune and your motive cannot be questioned.  Contrary to the Chief Justice’s supposed goal of preventing political retribution through prosecution, he has heightened the chances of future conflict between the political branches.”

“If faced with a corrupt presidency, to meet the demands of the public and the Constitution, Congress will have to assert its powers, from appropriations to oversight to legislation.  The Supreme Court has made it nearly impossible for the courts to hold a runaway president accountable.  It will be left to the American people and Congress to hold the line.  Because as Justice Sotomayor noted in her dissent, ‘the President is now a king above the law.’”

Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

On July 1, the Supreme Court’s rightwing supermajority ruled that not just Donald Trump—but also future presidents—may be immune from abusing the levers of government to overturn an election or engage in other misconduct. The Court held in a misguided 6-3 decision that “the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”

Durbin previously condemned the ruling and announced this hearing, describing the decision as “judicial activism unmoored from the text of the Constitution and intentions of our framers” that “Congress cannot turn a blind eye to.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee will examine the breadth of misconduct that may be immunized from prosecution, consider the unprecedented nature of this immunity in American history, and assess the danger it poses to both the rule of law and the independence of the Justice Department.

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