Top Advocacy Voices Call Out Threat to Democracy if Trump vs. United States Stands

Seventy-five national, state and local organizations say the recent Supreme Court ruling of Trump vs. United States, which presumably grants U.S. presidents full immunity in a court of law, should not stand.

In a letter entered into the record for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on September 24, organizations including MoveOn, Constitutional Accountability Center, StandUp America, Public Citizen, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Reproductive Freedom for All, AFSCME, the National Organization of Women, Center for American Progress, SEIU and Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics, among others say the ruling of Trump v. United States “poses a significant threat to our democracy by effectively providing the president with sweeping legal immunity for criminal acts.”

Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said ahead of the committee hearing, “Our country elects our leaders through a democratic process and those duly elected leaders, including the president of the United States, must follow the law, not stand above it.”

Public Citizen’s Democracy Campaign co-director Jonah Minkoff-Zern said the variety of advocacy voices and missions unified by this letter shows how egregious this ruling is.

“The language in Trump vs. United States suggests the president, in theory, could do whatever they want, whenever they want, without facing accountability under criminal law, so long as they could claim to be carrying out ‘official acts,’” said Minkoff-Zern. “The ramifications of this ruling are not abstract, especially following the January 6 attack on the Capitol. This decision impacts everyone, because the actions of the president of the United States affect all of us. It’s telling that so many different organizations have signed onto this letter.”