The conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court extended criminal immunity for U.S. presidents on July 1, a decision that favors Donald Trump and that Joe Biden called a “dangerous precedent.”
By deciding to hear the case on February 28 and setting the start of hearings for nearly three months later, the highest court in the United States had already delayed the federal trial of the former Republican president for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
By a majority of six to three — conservative justices on one side and liberal justices on the other — the Supreme Court ruled that “the president has no immunity for his unofficial acts,” but that “he is entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for his official acts.” Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts based the decision on “the principle of separation of powers.”
The court added that it is up to the courts to determine which presidential acts are potentially immune from prosecution.
Trump called it a “historic decision, invalidating most of the charges in the criminal proceedings against me.”
In a televised speech, President Joe Biden denounced a “dangerous precedent” that places presidents “above the law.”
“The consequence is that Trump will feel free to do whatever he wants if he wins the presidential election in November,” he added.
Beyond Trump’s legal woes, the decision “redefines the institution of the presidency,” transforming its incumbent into “a monarch above the law for all acts performed in the discharge of his duties,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissenting opinion, joined by her two progressive colleagues.
On May 30, Trump was found guilty in a New York court of falsifying Trump Organization accounts to pay $130,000 to former porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. She received the money in exchange for keeping quiet about a sexual relationship she had with the former president in 2006. His sentence will be announced on July 11.
According to some US media, on July 1, Trump’s lawyers sent a letter to the judge in charge of the case, asking for a delay in the announcement of the sentence and for the conviction to be overturned in light of the Supreme Court’s decision.
