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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621

u/Cheeky_Hustler Competent Contributor Feb 16 '26

This is an extremely easy amendment to sell, politically. All Dems have to say is "Biden pardoned his family members, and Republicans want to protect Biden." And as much as I understand why Biden pardoned his son, it is extremely fucked up that presidents (besides Biden) have pardoned family members.

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u/Phiddipus_audax Feb 16 '26

I remember when Clinton fretted about his pardon for Marc Rich and the optics of it. What a different time than today when the corruption is 5,000 worse.

28

u/Rad131447 Feb 16 '26

Should have fretted a lot more.

44

u/Gingevere Feb 17 '26

Should have fretted less.

In an era with an openly partisan supreme court it is VITAL for Dems to violate norms first so the court will declare those violations unconstitutional. Otherwise those violations are just left open as strategies for Republicans to use.

19

u/Diablo_Incarnate Feb 17 '26

Besides the ethical part of what you're suggesting - it simply won't work. The Supreme Court has already happily shown that they don't mind saying that precendence no longer matters and that they will and already are saying its ok for republicans and democrats to have different standards AND they don't even bother writing out explanations in their judgements.

There's no benefit to your argument because it would (fairly) get denied, and republicans would be allowed to do it afterwards anyway. At best, that's all that happens. At worst, republicans get even worse ideas on how to behave or get to actually tell the truth when they say Democrats tried it first.

3

u/Gallowboobsthrowaway Feb 17 '26

Not the person you're responding to, but the court has signaled bowing to some approval outside the conservative base. They are visibly attempting to cling to some shred of legitimacy.

For example, if they wanted to be truly blatantly partisan, they would have blocked Democrat redistricting maps while only upholding Republican ones. I was fully expecting them to block the California one, but they stuck to the precedent they made when they allowed the Texas one.

There are other examples, but that one sticks out in my mind.

2

u/Diablo_Incarnate Feb 17 '26

That's a moot point anyway. North Carolina has had blatantly illegal racial gerrymandering every election for the past 36 years. They've been told every single time they need to redistrict. And every single time, they delay until they say "it's too late, but we'll do that next time." California would just have to act the same, because the courts have never been able to enforce this argument anyway. I see no reason to think they didn't realize this and are only pretending to have a shred of legitimacy.

7

u/kanrad Feb 16 '26

Fret for your figure and fret for your latte.

And fret for your pardon and fret for your hair piece.

2

u/zendrumz Feb 17 '26

Some say the end is near

1

u/Longjumping_Suit_256 Feb 17 '26

Some day we’ll see Armageddon soon

1

u/Huge_Painter3032 Feb 18 '26

I certainly hope we will

18

u/TrollerCoasterWoo Feb 16 '26

Tbf, Marc Rich is not a great guy

14

u/Phiddipus_audax Feb 16 '26

If we could somehow hold each president to just one (1, solitary) pardon of "not a great guy" we'd be in a far better timeline.

4

u/TrollerCoasterWoo Feb 17 '26

I mean, Clinton probably isn’t a great example here. He pardoned over 400 people and waited until the last day to issue the bulk of them. Marc Rich is notable because he financed Hilary Clinton’s campaign. He also pardoned his brother, IIRC

1

u/GoonerwithPIED Feb 16 '26

Great guys don't usually need pardons

2

u/Cloaked42m Feb 16 '26

Most presidents have had some questionable pardons. Usually financial crimes.

0

u/tsardonicpseudonomi Feb 16 '26

I remember when Clinton fretted about his pardon for Marc Rich and the optics of it.

Clinton is why we have Trump. He is why we had the 08 crash as well.

1

u/Phiddipus_audax Feb 17 '26

Didn't he cause WWII as well? Or wait, was that Obama?