AAUW PUBLIC POLICY CONVERSATIONS – The No Kings Act
Reacting to the 2024 national election results, AAUW’s press release acknowledged that for a second time our country has decided it wasn’t ready to have a highly qualified woman hold our nation’s highest office. “The election results are extremely sobering,” AAUW CEO Gloria L. Blackwell said. “AAUW is committed to holding all elected officials accountable about women’s rights, bodily autonomy and access to education and economic opportunity, particularly for women of color.” A second Trump presidency puts women’s fundamental rights further in jeopardy, wrote AAUW’s senior director for policy and member advocacy, Meghan Kissell. AAUW vowed to “double-down” in its preparation for the Trump administration and Congress and be ready to deliver the organization’s agenda for the 119th Congress ahead of the new session.
One area of accountability to press forward on is a bill already introduced in the United States Senate, the NO KINGS ACT. In their forthcoming book, “Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People,” Harvard Law School professors Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan, argue that the U.S. Supreme Court has grown too powerful and Congress must intervene.
With last summer’s stunning ruling granting Presidents broad immunity from federal criminal laws, the authors argue that ruling and other opinions, “undermine Congress’s efforts to protect constitutional democracy.” In a 10/11/24 New York Times essay the professors point out that the idea of “judicial supremacy has long been challenged.” In a move to reassert the power of the legislative branch, Senate Democrats introduced the “No Kings Act” to overturn what Senator Chuck Schumer (D/NY) called “the most basic premise of our constitutional order—that no one is above the law.” “This brazen ruling contradicts American values, history, and the plain text of the Constitution,” Schumer states.
The No Kings Act would affirm that the President is not immune to legal accountability. “The Supreme Court has ensured that, going forward, the President will be a king above the law…Make no mistake about it. We have a very strong argument that Congress by statute can undo what the Supreme Court does.” The No Kings Act (1) Reaffirms that Presidents and Vice Presidents do not have immunity for actions that violate U.S. criminal law – (2) Removes the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction for all actions challenging the constitutionality of the legislation – (3) Establishes additional jurisdictional and procedural guardrails. The Harvard Law School professors maintain that the No Kings Act “follows an admirable tradition, dating back to the earliest years of the United States, in which Congress has invoked its constitutional authority to ensure that the fundamental law of our democracy is determined by the people’s elected representatives rather than a handful of lifetime appointees accountable to no one.”
Columnist Jamelle Bouie has characterized recent rulings overturning decades of legal precedent writing, “Our Supreme Court does not exist in the Constitutional order as much as it looms over it like a robed tribunal of self-styled philosopher kings accountable to no one but themselves.” Pew Research polling shows favorable views of the Court remain close to a 30-year low at 23% points lower than it was in August 2020.
Lilly Gioia