CAIRO — In reaction to President Mohammed Morsi's stunning constitutional declaration on Thursday night, Nov. 22, thousands of angry demonstrators marched to Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square in protest of what they described as “a coup on legitimacy.” Thousands were led by Muslim Brotherhood officers to show support at the walls of the presidential palace.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali announced on Thursday night that President Morsi had passed a constitutional declaration granting full immunity to the disputed 100-member assembly charged with writing the constitution as well as the remaining Upper House of Egypt’s dissolved parliament, in addition to retiring the general prosecutor and ordering the retrial of Mubarak-era officials, including those acquitted through several trials held in the aftermath of the January 2011 uprising.

The second constitutional declaration passed by Morsi in less than four months in power included the “revolution protection law,” which grants him the power to single-handedly take all “necessary measures to confront any dangers threatening the January 25 revolution, the life and safety of the nation, national unity or standing in the way of state institutions in performing their duties.” Such decisions could not be revised, appealed or revoked by any other authority, including the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court.

A statement signed and published by liberal, democratic and secular parties as well as Egypt’s Popular Current, a coalition of leftist and Nasserite parties, condemned the decision it described as “a complete crime committed by President Mohammed Morsi in the name of a new constitutional declaration.”