WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday slammed the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling for Donald Trump, calling it a ‘dangerous precedent’ for the future of the office of the presidency.
Speaking at the White House, Biden said the decision means there are now “virtually no limits on what the president can do”.
“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America. Each, each of us is equal before the law. No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. [With] today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed for all practical purposes,” Biden said.
The 6-3 opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and makes it highly unlikely the former president would be tried before the November 2024 election.
“The American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the upcoming election,” Biden said. “The public has a right to know the answer about what happened on Jan. 6 before they are asked to vote again this year.”
“Today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” Biden said.
The President went a bit further to call on the American people to vote in the November election, saying they must “do what the Supreme Court failed to do”.
“The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy on Jan. 6th makes him unfit for public office in the highest office in the land. The American people must decide if Trump’s embrace of violence to preserve his power is acceptable,” Biden said.
“Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide if they want to entrust … the presidency to Donald Trump now knowing he’ll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases,” he added.
The ruling will dramatically change the power of the presidency, making it clear that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for “core” official acts but have no immunity for “unofficial” acts.
“The President is not above the law,” the majority opinion read. “But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts. That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office.”
