President Joe Biden warned on Monday that the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity sets a “dangerous precedent” that Donald Trump would exploit if elected in November.
The conservative-dominated high
court ruled that Trump — and all presidents — enjoy “absolute immunity” from
criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken while in office, but can still
face criminal penalties for “unofficial acts.”
“For all practical purposes,
today’s decision almost certainly means there are no limits to what a president
can do. This is a fundamentally new principle, and it’s a dangerous precedent,”
Biden said in a speech at the White House.
Trump is facing criminal
charges over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, but that
trial had been put on hold while the Supreme Court considered his immunity
claims.
The 6-3 ruling on Monday, split
along ideological lines, is set to further delay proceedings in that case,
almost certainly to sometime after voters head to the polls in November.
“The American people must
decide if they want to entrust… once again, the presidency to Donald Trump, now
knowing he’ll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants
to do it,” Biden said.
Conservative Chief Justice John
Roberts, in his majority opinion, said a president is “not above the law” but
does have “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for official acts taken
while in office.
“The president therefore may
not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers,” Roberts said.
“As for a President’s
unofficial acts, there is no immunity,” the chief justice added, sending the
case back to a lower court to determine which of the charges facing Trump
involve official or unofficial conduct.
Trump is charged with
conspiracy to defraud the United States as well as obstruction of an official
proceeding — when a violent mob of his supporters tried to prevent the January
6, 2021, joint session of Congress held to certify Biden’s victory.
The 78-year-old former
president is also charged with conspiracy to deny Americans the right to vote and
to have their votes counted.
“The public has a right to know
the answer about what happened on January 6, before they’re asked to vote again
this year,” Biden said. “Now because of today’s decision, that is highly,
highly unlikely. It’s a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.”
Organise a coup? ‘Immune’
The three liberal justices
dissented from Monday’s ruling with Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying she was
doing so “with fear for our democracy.”
“Never in the history of our
Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from
criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the
criminal law,” Sotomayor said. “In every use of official power, the President
is now a king above the law.”
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6
to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organises a military coup to hold
onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune,
immune, immune.”
Trump, in posts on Truth
Social, welcomed the decision calling it a “big win for our Constitution and
democracy.”
“Today’s Historic Decision by
the Supreme Court should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against
me,” he said.
Election case will ‘drag on
Steven Schwinn, a law professor
at the University of Illinois Chicago, said the ruling means the case “is going
to drag on more and more, and longer and longer, and well beyond the election.”
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