Presidential Immunity to Trump, Supreme Court Decision Dangerous Example: President Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden has warned that the Supreme Court’s historic ruling on presidential immunity has set a “dangerous precedent” that Donald Trump will take advantage of if elected.
According to the French news agency AFP, the US Supreme Court on Monday granted partial immunity to former President Donald Trump in criminal cases.
The ruling states that Donald Trump, as a former president, may have some immunity from the lawsuits against him.
Six judges of the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump while three judges ruled against it. The decision comes at a time when the general election in the United States is just four months away, in which Trump’s opponent is the Democratic candidate and incumbent President Joe Biden.
“Today’s decision means there are no limits to what the president can do,” Joe Biden said in his speech at the White House. This is essentially a new principle and it is a dangerous precedent.
Joe Biden said that the American people will have to decide whether they want to hand over the presidency to Donald Trump again knowing that he will be encouraged to do what he wants to do and when he wants to do it.
On the other hand, Donald Trump has called this decision a ‘big win’.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in his ruling, said that a president is not above the law but enjoys “absolute immunity” from military prosecution for official acts while in office. Therefore, the President cannot be sued for exercising his fundamental constitutional powers.
He said that ‘as far as the non-official or private actions of the President are concerned, there is no exception.’
The Chief Justice referred the case to the lower court asking it to determine which of the charges leveled against the former president were public and which were private in nature.
Three justices dissented, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that “never in our democratic history has a president believed that he is immune from criminal prosecution if he uses his office to violate a criminal law.” Will be safe. She said that this is a threat to our democracy and that is why I disagree with the decision.
