Opposing view: Amend the Constitution on pardon power
If President Trump were to pardon everyone involved in his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, only remedy would be impeachment.
Opposing view: Amend the Constitution on pardon power If President Trump were to pardon everyone involved in his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, only remedy would be impeachment. Check out this story on timesrecordnews.com: https://wtrne.ws/2sP05fk
Jeremy Mayer, George Mason University Published 4:31 p.m. CT June 11, 2018 | Updated 4:32 p.m. CT June 11, 2018
FILE - In this 1932 file photo, boxer Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight champion, poses in New York City. President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 24, 2018, granted a rare posthumous pardon to boxing's first black heavyweight champion, clearing Jack Johnson's name more than 100 years after a racially-charged conviction. (AP Photo/File)(Photo: The Associated Press)
The pardon power is unchecked. If a president grants a pardon, there is nothing the Congress or the courts can do; the crime has vanished.
If President Trump were to pardon everyone involved in his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, including himself, the only remedy would be impeachment.
Impeachment, however, is no real check on the pardon power. When President Clinton issued a pardon for fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, it was so egregious that even liberal Democrats called it "outrageous" and "a real betrayal." But with just days left in his presidency, Clinton knew that impeachment would not touch him.
Impeachment would be unlikely to work against Trump either, given his popularity with the GOP base. The only limits to pardons have been a president's respect for the law, fear of the public's anger and a sense of shame.
With Trump, a uniquely shameless man, limits don't work. He has already asserted a right to pardon himself.
It's time to amend the Constitution to check the president's pardon power.
It has happened before. For 150 years, no president served more than two terms in office. Then came the phenomenally popular Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who in a time of global war believed his steady hand of leadership was essential.
A few years later, a bipartisan movement, fearful of what a future president might do with unlimited terms, added the 22nd amendment. The norm became a rule, after the norm was broken.
If Trump has the shameless gall to pardon himself, that norm violation will also require a constitutional fix.
What would be a good check on the pardon power? The Founders considered giving the Senate the power to approve pardons. Better to give Congress the power to overturn pardons within 30 days of their granting.
Trump's misuse of the pardon would in the end improve our Constitution, fixing a flaw that has persisted for 229 years.
Jeremy Mayer is an associate professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government.
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