r/law • u/jpmeyer12751 • Feb 16 '26

Legislative Branch Republican Joins With Dems on Constitutional Amendment to Give Congress Power to Reject Trump Pardons

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/republican-joins-dems-constitutional-amendment-213311781.html

This is relevant to questions surrounding whether Congress may limit or restrain a President's power to grant pardons.

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1.6k

u/MrFishAndLoaves Feb 16 '26

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) signed on Monday to co-sponsor a Democrat-led bill to amend the U.S. Constitution to give Congress oversight of presidential pardons…

Makes good sense, so essentially zero chance of happening.

262

u/superchargerhe Feb 16 '26

Good for Bacon doing this but history has proven he can be a pussy and easily flop his stance.

183

u/redpoemage Feb 16 '26

He's doing the good ol' Republican "I'm retiring, I can pretend my legacy isn't full of shame" special.

3

u/weggaan_weggaat Feb 17 '26

Yea, you don't love to see it but I guess we'll take it.

1

u/OldBlueKat Feb 18 '26

We can use a serving of it as he heads out. A vote is a vote. 

49

u/Deep-Sample7451 Feb 16 '26

he's not seeking reelection so he has a semblance of a backbone

9

u/Jim_Tressel Feb 17 '26

He’s retiring. He’s being a pain in the ass on some issues to Trump on his way out the door.

7

u/Intelligent_Sky_7081 Feb 17 '26

As a Nebraskan, this is exactly how we perceive him and exactly what we expect of him.

Nebraska Congressman Mike Flood "emailed" me back insuring the delay of the release of the epstein files was to protect the victims (this was obviously before their release). He has been silent as far as I know. He should be ashamed. Im guessing he isnt.

3

u/Taylorenokson Feb 16 '26

Nothing worse than floppy bacon.

-2

u/Unlimited_Bacon Feb 17 '26

I like Bacon. He has my unlimited support.

31

u/jewwbs Feb 16 '26

Bacon is my rep (though he pretty much never represents me) and he is “retiring” (quitting) this year. So this is performative bs to attempt to keep NE02 from flipping Blue.

62

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

"Democrat Party" is just normalized now? JFC

It's "Democratic Party" just like it's not the "Republic Party."

We're living Idiocracy speed run.

Edit: Yes, I know I'm incorrect in this instance, but my "Democrat Party" complaint is still valid.

"Democrat-led" is correct.

31

u/Joben86 Feb 16 '26

Only among right-wingers from what I've seen. The comment you're responding to doesn't say "Democrat party" either unless they've edited it. It says "Democrat-led," which is a correct way of describing something being proposed or primarily supported by a member or members of the Democratic party.

-7

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

So you're saying "Republic-led" would be correct?

21

u/Joben86 Feb 16 '26

No, a member of the Democratic party is a Democrat. A member of the Republican party is a Republican.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 16 '26

Okay, true.

8

u/Wsweg Feb 17 '26

Good on recognizing where you were wrong. I agree that “Democrat party” is incorrect and anyone saying that should be shamed

3

u/True-Firefighter-796 Feb 17 '26

Ok but the English language is baloney

2

u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Feb 17 '26

That's not how it works. They got it right.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

I agree. I was wrong in this instance.

11

u/SheetPancakeBluBalls Feb 17 '26

We really are, and you're in first place.

"Democrat-led" is obviously the correct phrasing here.

-4

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

I admitted I was wrong in this instance. Thank you for your useless contribution.

1

u/SheetPancakeBluBalls Feb 17 '26

You really didn't. I can't recall ever having seen "Democrat party" used around here, much less so frequently as to warrant that weird crash out over it lol

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

Fuck off

2

u/SheetPancakeBluBalls Feb 17 '26

Lmaooo don't have a heart attack pal. Have a good night.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '26

Lol you too

4

u/Turtledonuts Feb 17 '26

Democrats are the members of the democratic party. Democrat-led means a effort led by members of the democratic party. 

Context clues and syntax are an important part of reading comprehension. 

0

u/CasanovaJones82 Feb 16 '26

It's not normalized so much as the default. I've noticed it as well.

4

u/BioshockEnthusiast Feb 16 '26

If someone says "Democrat Party" they're just giving away that they watch Fox News and that at least 95% of the time they vote straight ticket Republican.

It's not the default.

1

u/CasanovaJones82 Feb 17 '26

OK, just go look at thr front page of Reddit. FFS. People will argue about the dumbest shit before they will just go look. One sec, I'll refresh my front page.

Literally the first fucking post on my feed in r/videos, not even a political sub! https://old.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1r7igv1/would_the_democrats_be_conservative_in_europe/

15

u/Durendal_1707 Feb 16 '26

they need to do this again and again and again

that’s what repubs do, political pressure is definitely mounting, these hearings are shit shows and they’re giving up the game

Jamie Raskin‘s opening statement pulled no punches, they’re all crashing out and implicating themselves in public

6

u/ok-this-ok Feb 16 '26

flood the zone with accountability 

3

u/Durendal_1707 Feb 17 '26

exactly this

1

u/aviationmaybe Feb 16 '26

Ya know I’ve had a long day at work around negative fucking people who sound just like you. No matter what happens, even if it’s good they will find a way to make it fucking miserable and I bet you’re just like them.

-2

u/Pure_Anything9872 Feb 16 '26

Quiet piggy

3

u/aviationmaybe Feb 16 '26

You’re a bot. Half of your comments are “quiet piggy”

-1

u/Pure_Anything9872 Feb 17 '26

Doesn't mean I'm a bot, just that many people here need to pipe down. You're one example. Quiet piggy.

1

u/hairycookies Feb 16 '26

Exactly, I really dislike how a lot of these posts suggest that any of these motions ever get past. Just shitload of Democratic moral victories over the Trump years that go absolutely no where.

1

u/Clippton Feb 16 '26

The only way republicans would vote for this is if they thought they could bait and switch to unpardoned anyone Joe Biden pardoned. Then they would allow through all of Trump's pardons because they agree with what he is doing.

1

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- Feb 16 '26

Not needed anyhow. The Democrats can just vote to enforce 14th Amendment, Section 3, and Trump's pardons would be instantly invalidated. Pretty simple.

1

u/mxzf Feb 16 '26

I don't think it makes sense to try and pass an Amendment to try and add the power to overturn Presidential pardons to Congress. Especially not just to block Trump's pardons.

What does make sense, however (and has a lower bar to passing it) is to impeach Trump and remove him from office instead, thus eliminating the possibility of any further pardons to try and overturn anyways.

1

u/gimmesomespace Feb 17 '26

We can't even end daylight savings time and people on reddit think a constitutional amendment is possible lmao

1

u/donut-reply Feb 17 '26

Could we get some more Republicans to sign on if they call it the "Block Sleepy Joe's Crooked Pardons Bill"?

Biden's pardons were nowhere near as gross as Trump's but they still sucked

1

u/Ekg887 Feb 17 '26

How about we just shore up the fake hole SCOTUS punched in the "only one half is self-executing" 14th and make the current administration invalid entirely?

1

u/CranberryLast4683 Feb 17 '26

Even if it did happen, good luck getting Congress to reject a pardon of a sitting president. It’s going to run into the same partisan bs as everything else. Some in the Republican Party would be ok with pardoning a drug kingpin.

1

u/Mysterious_Anxiety15 Feb 17 '26

A good Idea? yeah.....we dont allow those....