US President Joe Biden blasts Supreme Court over Trump decision

US President Biden has blasted the Supreme Court decision to give former presidents “absolute immunity” labelling it as a “dangerous precedent”.

A divided US Supreme Court has thrown out a judicial decision rejecting Donald Trump’s bid to shield himself from federal criminal charges involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in a major ruling involving the scope of presidential immunity from prosecution.

The court ruled that former presidents are shielded from prosecution for actions they take within their constitutional authority, as opposed to a private capacity.

The ruling marked the first time since the nation’s 18th-century founding that the Supreme Court has declared that former presidents may be shielded from criminal charges in any instance.

“There are no kings in America. Each of us is equal before the law. No one is above the law. Not even the president of the United States,’ President Biden said in a live media address from The White House.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity - that fundamentally changed.”

“For all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.

“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.

“The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone.

“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.

“Nearly four years ago my predecessor sent a violent mob to the US capital to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

“We all saw with our own eyes we sat there and watched it happen that day.

“Attacks on the police. The ransacking of the capital and a mob literally hunting down the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

‘I think it’s fair to say was one of the darkest days in the history of America.

Now the man who sent that mob to the US capital is facing a potential criminal conviction for what happened that day and the American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the upcoming election.

“The public has a right to know the answer about what happened on January 6th before they are asked to vote again this year.

“Now because of today’s decision that is highly highly unlikely.

Biden said that if a US Court would not render judgment on Trump before the election, then it was ultimately up to the American people to make the judgment through how vote.

With Reuters