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The US founders made a grave error in granting presidents pardon power (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 4 hours ago by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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From betraying Ukraine and dispatching masked agents who killed Americans to deporting US citizens and pulling out of accords controlling climate change and Iranian nuclear weapons, the list of Donald Trump’s abuses is long and growing still longer, seemingly by the day.

Looking back decades from now, historians will see that at the top of this shameful list is Trump’s utter abuse of his pardon power. It started on the first day of his second term, when he pardoned more than 1,500 insurrectionists who, on 6 January 2021, had stormed the US Capitol.

More recently, as documented in astonishing accounts by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and 60 Minutes, Trump has overseen a robust pardons market in which friends or relatives of criminals offer to pay millions for presidential clemency.

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[–] 10 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

Americans: is there anything stopping the next president from abolishing the pardon and retroactively nullifying any existing pardons?

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  • [–] 15 points 3 hours ago* (1 child)

    The pardon power is directly in the Constitution. It would take an amendment to modify it. Amendments are hard to do, they need 2/3 of Congress and 3/4 of States on board.

    And if you want Conservatives to get on board, you get a Liberal to start abusing it. But most Liberals have too much integrity to do that....

    .... So, maybe Gavin really is the man for the moment!

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago

    Well, when the cons are questioning things like donnie having a third term, I think some Democrats should step into the WH and test it out. Arrest donnie and pals, and make them fight it out in the courts. Maybe deport them to CECOT in the interim and let them fight to have them brought back here.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 hours ago

    I mean, that's a broad question. Personally? Practically? Politically? Constitutionally?

    Legally-speaking, this is not something the President can unilaterally do. Theoretically they could amend the Constitution to accomplish the former and allow for the latter, but the chances they could actually do so are next to nil.

    Could a President do it anyway? Well, maybe... It seems very unlikely that this would survive public scrutiny, and even the corruption-captured Courts would have a very difficult time trying to justify any of it under existing frameworks.

    The "retroactively" part would probably be a particularly difficult hurdle. The US Constitution has protections against Ex Post Facto criminalization, and revocation of pardons would almost certainly violate that principle. Ditching that protection would be wildly unpopular, since it would allow for things like passing a law that would, for example, having ever received an abortion in the past. Or, having ever so much as touched a firearm.

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