President is now 'a king above the law', says dissenting US supreme court justice

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberal US Supreme Court judges who dissented from the majority opinion on Donald Trump's immunity case ruling, called the consequences of the court's decision "stark" and said the court's decision allows a president to use official powers to be insulated from criminal prosecution, reports BBC.

Writing in her dissent, Sotomayor said, "The relationship between the president and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law... With fear for our democracy, I dissent." 

"Today's decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the presidency," she wrote.

Justice Sotomayor said a president would now be protected if they order the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, organise a military dissenting coup to hold onto power, or take bribes in exchange for a pardon.

"Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done," she wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, voted against the majority ruling.