Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) responded to Monday’s Supreme Court decision finding presidents have far greater immunity against criminal prosecution than even the Founders appear to have wanted, announced she will file articles of impeachment against the justices, although she did not name which ones.
In their 6-3 ruling along partisan lines, the justices claimed presidents cannot be criminally charged for “official” acts, but are not immune from charges for private ones. Legal scholars declared the six right-wing justices had effectively just made Donald Trump a “king.”
“The Supreme Court has become consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, known as “AOC,” wrote on Monday.
“Today’s ruling represents an assault on American democracy. It is up to Congress to defend our nation from this authoritarian capture,” she added. “I intend on filing articles of impeachment upon our return.”
Congress is in recess this week ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) responded, “I fully support this.”
NBC News’ senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur noted impeachment would “require a majority of the House to impeach plus two-thirds of the Senate to remove a member of SCOTUS.”
But former Obama administration official Brandon Friedman remarked, “Before everyone starts whining about how an impeachment of Supreme Court justices won’t pass a Republican-controlled House, that isn’t what this is about. It’s about the spectacle. It’s about the headlines. It’s about communicating to voters a grave threat to the Republic.”
Earlier on Monday Georgetown Law professor Josh Chafetz had said, “Democrats should go to war with the Court. The public is on their side on the issues—including abortion, immunity, environmental regulations, etc. They should make opposition to the Republican Court the organizing theme of the November election.”
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
