Retired judge Luttig backs Biden's constitutional amendment on immunity

Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig said Monday that he supports President Biden’s proposal for a constitutional amendment to counteract the recent Supreme Court decision giving former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken while in office.

The amendment would partially overturn the landmark immunity ruling by making clear former presidents do not enjoy criminal immunity from federal criminal indictments. The “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” however, would not apply to state indictments.

“I support a constitutional amendment that would repudiate the Supreme Court’s faithless decision in Trump v. United States and restore the animating principle of our Nation and of our Constitution that no man is above the law, least of all the President of the United States,” Luttig wrote in a post on social media platform X.

Luttig — a longtime conservative judge — was highly critical of the July 1 decision, which granted a major victory to former President Trump by dooming some elements of his criminal prosecutions.

The 6-3 decision earlier this month ruled presidents have absolute immunity for actions taken within their core official responsibilities and that they have presumptive immunity for all other official acts.

In his statement Monday, Luttig called immunity ruling “abominable” and said that, with the decision, “the Supreme Court cut the heart and soul out of America’s Democracy and the Rule of Law.”

“No longer can it be said that in America no man is above the law, because on that day, the Supreme Court held that the President of the United States — and in particular the former president of the United States — actually is above the law,” he added.

The plan comes after the president withdrew from the 2024 race against Trump earlier this month and endorsed Vice President Harris to lead the ticket. In his address to the nation last week, Biden said he would use much of the remainder of his term to carve out reform for the high court.

The constitutional amendment was one of three major court reform proposals that the president unveiled Monday. He also called for term limits for justices and a binding code of ethics. The announcement marked a major shift for Biden, who had long resisted calls from the left for reform.

“This nation was founded on the principle there are no kings in America,” Biden said in a speech Monday. “Each of us legally follows the law. No one is above the law. For all practical purposes, the court’s decision almost certainly means that a president can violate their oath, flout our laws and face no consequences.”

Luttig has in recent years been among the most high-profile conservative critics of Trump and his efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to Biden. The former judge even testified during the House hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

He has also criticized the high court for past decisions involving Trump, including in determining that the 14th Amendment’s insurrection ban did not disqualify the former president from the ballot.