WASHINGTON – Bipartisan legislation to make it harder for President Trump to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller ran into legal hurdles Tuesday at the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Four leading scholars testifying before the committee were divided on whether the Senate’s proposals to protect Mueller’s Russia probe were even legal.

Akhil Reed Amar, a professor at Yale Law School and a Democrat, informed the committee that its attempt to clip Trump’s wings would not stand up in court.

“I must sadly report as a scholar who has studied the Constitution I believe the bills in their current forms are unwise and unconstitutional. It gives me no pleasure to say this,” said Amar, who suggested instead a new bipartisan senatorial oversight panel.

He was joined by John Duffy, a University of Virginia School of Law professor, who also flagged constitutional concerns about the legislation.

But University of Texas Law School Prof. Stephen Vladeck and University of Chicago Law School Prof. Eric Posner said the Senate could overcome any constitutional hurdles and move forward on these bills.

“I conclude that they do not violate the principles of separation of powers and, on the contrary, advance important constitutional values,” Posner testified.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is weighing two bills: the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and the Special Counsel Integrity Act by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.)

Each provides for a judicial review if the special counsel is fired and each was motivated by Trump’s contempt for the Mueller investigation.

“Both bills were introduced when media speculation was rampant that President Trump was contemplating firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” said Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “The President has said that he does not intend to fire the special counsel, and I think that he made the right decision.”

Mueller has largely enjoyed bipartisan support for his Russian probe and members of Congress are concerned Trump would find a way to fire Mueller, especially as he digs into the president’s finances, which Trump has dubbed a “red line.”

“I have strenuous concern about President Trump’s respect for the rule of law,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The hearing often felt a like a law school lecture with discussions about pardon authority, Watergate decisions, Supreme Court writings and the separation of powers.

“I’m not a lawyer,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) quipped at one point. “I am a comedian and we didn’t discuss this in comedy school.”