Dangerous precedent: US President Biden criticises Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s immunity

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has criticised the Supreme Court’s decision, entitling former President Donald Trump to Presidential immunity and said that it is a “dangerous precedent”, adding that the President is now a king above the law.

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled that former President Donald Trump is entitled to have substantial immunity from prosecution on charges of plotting to subvert the 2020 election, The New York Times reported.

Calling it a “terrible disservice” to the Americans, President Biden said that the US was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America. “Each, each of us is equal before the law. No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States”, he said during his live remarks on X.

US President Biden added, “With today’s Supreme Court decision and presidential immunity that fundamentally changed for all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what the president can do.” He stressed that this is a fundamentally new principle.

“And it’s a dangerous precedent because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States”, Biden said. He added, “The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone”.

I will respect the limits of presidential powers that I have for three and a half years. But any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law.

I concur with what Justice Sotomayor wrote today:

“With fear for our democracy—I dissent.”

So do I. pic.twitter.com/YmrPBMQhgY

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 2, 2024

Criticising the apex court’s decision which came on Monday, Biden said that the decision undermines the rule of law of this country. “This decision today, has continued the court’s attack in recent years on a wide range of long-established legal principles in our nation. From gutting voting rights and civil rights to taking away a woman’s right to choose, to today’s decision that undermines the rule of law of this nation”, he said.

Biden recounted Donald Trump’s incitement of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and said the Americans deserved to have a trial on those actions before the election, but now the court’s ruling has made that impossible. “Now, because of today’s decision, that’s highly, highly unlikely. It’s a terrible disservice to the people in this nation”, he stressed.

Biden emphasised that the American people must decide whether Trump’s assault on January 6 makes him unfit for handling public office in the country. “The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on Jan. 6 makes him unfit for the highest office in the land”, he said on X.

“Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust the president, once again, the presidency, to Donald Trump, now knowing that he will be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whatever he wants to do”, he added.

Biden stressed that the president is now become a king above the law. “The president is now a king above the law. So should the American people dissent. I dissent”, he said. He further wished, “…May God help preserve our democracy”.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that former President Trump is entitled to have substantial immunity from prosecution on charges of plotting to subvert the 2020 election, The New York Times reported. It further said that Trump is entitled to substantial immunity from prosecution on charges of trying to overturn the last election.

Moreover, its immediate practical effect would be to further complicate the case against Trump, with the chances that it will go before a jury ahead of the election now vanishingly remote and the charges against him, at a minimum, narrowed, reported The New York Times. (ANI)