The US Supreme Court's decision on Monday to grant presumed criminal immunity for official acts of a president fundamentally changes US democracy, President Joe Biden said on Monday evening at the White House.

In his nearly five-minute speech, Biden said the 6-3 decision contradicted the spirit of the nation's founding – which is being celebrated nationwide this week on July 4 – that no one is above the law.

“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America,” Biden said. “Each of us is equal before the law. No one – no one – is above the law, not even the President of the United States.”

The immunity resolution, written by Chief Justice John Roberts for the court's conservative majority, undermines that principle, Biden said.

Biden added that the decision would almost certainly mean a jury would not rule on the criminal case accusing former President Donald Trump of conspiring to illegally overturn his 2020 defeat before the November election, which Biden called “a disservice to the American people.”

Robert's opinion

The ruling tasked a federal court with determining which actions taken by then-President Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election were “official” acts of the president. Those actions are entitled to “the presumption of immunity,” Roberts wrote.

The ruling protects the power of an office that itself constitutes an entire branch of government, Roberts said, and is consistent with the Constitution's view that the president has broad powers and responsibilities.

“Recognizing that reality — and ensuring that the President can exercise those powers with the force that the framers intended him to — does not place him above the law,” Roberts wrote. “It preserves the basic structure of the Constitution.”

Biden, however, called the decision a “dangerous precedent” that would give the president almost unlimited power.

“The president's power is no longer limited by law, not even by the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said. “The only limits are imposed by the president himself.”

Biden cited the example of George Washington, who he said limited presidential power, and promised that he would continue to “respect the limits of presidential power.”

However, he said the ruling gives future presidents, possibly Trump, the power to ignore the law.

Attack of January 6

Biden said Trump was responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that prevented the certification of Biden's victory over Trump in the 2020 election. Trump's efforts to rig the election results, which culminated in the Jan. 6 attack, are the subject of federal charges that the former president has contested, citing his immunity.

“Four years ago, my predecessor sent a violent mob to the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power,” Biden said. “We all saw it with our own eyes. We saw what happened that day… I think it's fair to say it was one of the darkest days in U.S. history. Now the man who sent that mob to the U.S. Capitol faces possible criminal conviction.”

Biden, whose re-election campaign was still reeling on Monday from the fallout from his performance in the debate against Trump, which even Democrats called weak, urged voters to “do what the court should have been willing to do but would not” and reject Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, at the ballot box.

The president supported Justice Sonia Sotomayor's strong dissent in the case, quoting her words that the majority opinion creates “fear for our democracy” and urging voters to dissent as well.