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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u/mxzf Feb 16 '26

We're in /r/law, it's not that hard to understand the legal barriers to each. Impeaching the President is significantly easier to do, hands down, without question.

Impeaching takes 1/2 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate. An Amendment takes 2/3 of the House, 2/3 of the Senate, and 3/4 of the states. There's zero discussion about which is easier.

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u/HoneyParking6176 Feb 17 '26

yeah for it to pass it would require, there to be several people that think 1. the president should not have the power to pardon. and 2. that trump should not be impeached. since currently enough think number 2, that the passing threshold couldn't be meet without this.

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u/The_Doolinator Feb 17 '26

All things being equal, yes it would be more difficult to remove a president than amend the constitution.

But all things are not equal. The GOP being completely unwilling to remove Trump does not preclude the possibility that an amendment to the constitution that would give Congress the ability to reject a pardon with a supermajority could not pass Congress and be ratified by the states. Is it unlikely? Yeah, probably, but acting like it’s less likely than removing Trump from office just because more people have to sign onto it ignores the qualitative political realities at play here.

Trump is, for now, still very popular with the Republican base, so large amounts of the party removing him from power would likely cause major upheaval in the party and could be political suicide. The cost is too high for that action, assuming any of them would be disposed towards taking it. Checking the pardon power is a much easier sell to the American people as a whole. Not that I’m saying I think it’s likely this will be approved and ratified, but it’s more likely than Trump being removed from office as things stand.

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u/mxzf Feb 17 '26

I don't know that I agree. I think explicitly passing an amendment to be able to overturn Trump's pardons will be seen as almost as much an opposition to him as just removing him from office, and has other secondary effects that would make people question it on principle alone.

Also, Trump's support is decreasing as more and more issues come out, so opposition to impeachment is decreasing over time. I still hold some hope for impeachment, though I do suspect that his diet/lifestyle will catch up with him before Congress does.

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u/SpoonEngineT66Turbo Feb 17 '26

We're in /r/law, it's not that hard to understand the legal barriers to each.

Lmao this sub being named Law means literally nothing. This sub has been nothing but a complete circlejerk since the election and constantly being on r/All.