THE US Supreme Court has ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, all but ending any hope that Donald Trump could face trial before the next election in November on charges of plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.
In Monday’s historic six-three ruling, the court’s conservative majority — including three judges appointed by Mr Trump — narrowed the case against him and returned it to the trial court to determine what is left of special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.
Posting on X, the former president crowed about a “big win for our constitution and democracy.”
However, President Joe Biden warned that the court ruling had set “a dangerous precedent [that] undermines the rule of this nation,”and the Supreme Court’s dissenting judges criticised it as undermining a core democratic principle that no person is above the law.
“Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of presidential power entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court on Monday.
“And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
In a dissenting opinion from the court’s three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.”
Reading from her opinion in the courtroom, Ms Sotomayor said: “Because our constitution does not shield a former president from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.”
Mr Biden bemoaned that “for all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.”
Writing on X, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer denounced the ruling as “a disgraceful decision” made with the help of the three Trump-appointed judges, which suggests that “political influence trumps all in our courts today.”
Centre for Election Innovation & Research executive director David Becker called the breadth of immunity granted to Mr Trump “incredibly broad” and “deeply disturbing.”
“Almost anything that a president does with the executive branch is characterised as an official act,” he told reporters, warning that, “for any unscrupulous individual holding the seat of the Oval Office who might lose an election, the way I read this opinion is it could be a road map for them seeking to stay in power.”
Mr Trump denies wrongdoing and claims that the current prosecution and three others are politically motivated.
