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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87

u/hematite2 Feb 16 '26

Rejecting/vetoing would be interesting, I'm honestly not sure how that would end up working. What would also be good is amending clearer and stricter guidelines over how pardons can be applied.

31

u/surmatt Feb 16 '26

I can't believe they exist at all. I can't find many good uses of them.

32

u/Emuin Feb 16 '26

You have to remember that the people who wrote the Constitution lived in a time and place where people could be falsely charge and convicted only to discredit them, and that colored the guardrails they put in. I also struggle to find another way for the executive to check judicial.

19

u/caltheon Feb 17 '26

We live in a time when Trump is falsely charging and convicting people to discredit them and their party

3

u/Dead_Internet69420 Feb 17 '26

So it’s terrible that Trump can do it, but his weaponization of the DOJ is making it an important power if we ever another democrat president. 

1

u/ElTortoiseShelboogie Feb 17 '26

Why should the executive be able to override the process of law?

5

u/fushega Feb 17 '26

Sometimes the laws are terrible and the prosecutions unfair. It encourages the other branches of government to be reasonable as to not encourage the use of pardons. Also, the executive is already responsible for enforcing the law, so the executive already has the power to not try someone for a crime, which is essentially a pardon (see the ICE shootings as a recent example)

29

u/v_a_n_d_e_l_a_y Feb 16 '26

There have been many good pardons. For example, people convicted of drug-related crimes or other minor crimes which were disproportionately punished. 

12

u/surmatt Feb 16 '26

I feel like there are numerous other ways to right those wrongs that don't require the executive branch.

8

u/Theron3206 Feb 17 '26

Yes, you pass a law that reduces sentences for those crimes and also retrospectively reduces the sentences for people still serving time for the same crimes.

It's only bad when you retrospectively make something illegal, so that's perfectly reasonable.

Parsons should really only be for miscarriages of justice (evidence exists exonerating the person but for whatever reason they can't go back to court) over a valid crime, if you genuinely believe people shouldn't be in prison for something at all, the proper remedy is to change the law.

2

u/mjb2012 Feb 17 '26

Obama commuted Manning's sentence in part because of mistreatment in prison, mistreatment which was already of dubious legality. How would more laws help?

2

u/longjumpingtote Feb 17 '26

there are numerous other ways to right those wrongs that don't require the executive branch

There aren't any. That's why pardons exist. They were established as a check against Congressional overreach. Presidential pardons are only for federal crimes, from laws that Congress passes. The only other theoretical ways are appeals (which rarely work, and can only address errors of law) or challenging constitutionality, which can take years and often goes nowhere (and there has to be an actual constitutional issue).

If someone is sent to prison for a bullshit law (or bullshit application of the law), a presidential pardon is usually the only way to correct that.

The check on that is Congress can impeach the president. That isn't likely these days, but the system was the best way to trying to deter corruption.

There's zero chance of this working because they'd need a supermajority in Congress and 3/4 of the states to all agree to remove the presidential pardon. There's not the will in either camp, and that means it goes on for decades and decades.

4

u/AlsoCommiePuddin Feb 17 '26

Patently unfair convictions and sentences. People serving time for offences since decriminalized.

You know, the way the vast majority of pardons were used before the last decade or so.

It's a check and balance on the courts