President Joe Biden slammed the U.S. Supreme Court for ruling on Monday that presidents have limited immunity from criminal prosecution for acts committed while in office.
“No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Biden said in a live address to the nation. “The Supreme Court’s decision today on presidential immunity fundamentally changes that. In effect, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are now virtually no limits on the president’s actions.”
“This is a fundamentally new principle and a dangerous precedent because the power of the presidency will no longer be constrained by the law, including by the United States Supreme Court,” Biden added. “The only limitations will be those the president imposes on himself.”
The president continued to criticize the Supreme Court for attacking “broad, long-established legal principles” in the United States.
“Nearly four years ago, my predecessor sent a violent mob into the United States Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. We all saw it with our own eyes. We sat there that day and watched it happen,” Biden continued.
Attacks on police, the ransacking of the Capitol, a mob literally chasing down Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and a gallows to hang Vice President Mike Pence. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was one of the darkest days in American history. Now, the man who led that mob into the U.S. Capitol can be convicted for what happened that day. The American people deserve answers in a court of law before the upcoming election. The American people deserve to know what happened on January 6th before they are asked to vote again this year.
Biden called the Supreme Court’s decision a “disservice” and added that Americans need to serve on juries.
“Now the American people must do what the court was willing to do but did not,” Biden added.
The American people must pass judgment on Donald Trump’s actions. The American people must judge whether Donald Trump’s attack on our democracy on January 6th makes him unfit to hold the highest office in the land. The American people must decide whether it is acceptable for Trump to tolerate violence in order to stay in power. Perhaps most importantly, the American people must decide whether they want to entrust the presidency to Donald Trump again.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that “Under our constitutional separation of powers structure, the nature of presidential powers provides a former President with absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that are within the scope of his distinct and exclusive constitutional authority. He is also entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. He has no immunity for his unofficial acts.”
