Presidential Mercy Is a Woefully Inadequate Remedy for Injustice
The controversy over Trump’s pardons and commutations highlights longstanding problems with clemency.
The controversy over Trump’s pardons and commutations highlights longstanding problems with clemency.
Out with the CDC and teachers unions, in with school choice for everyone.
An interesting question of institutional norms
Partisans who abandon constitutional principles because they prove inconvenient are in for a rude surprise when the other team wins.
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Biden's willingness to extend a nationwide eviction moratorium, while declining to mandate masks nationwide, demonstrates a worrying inconsistency in his views on presidential powers.
Biden correctly recognizes he doesn't have the authority to impose a general national mask mandate. The same reasoning shows the nationwide eviction ban is also illegal.
The cult of the imperial U.S. presidency has come to feel like a national religion.
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The president's final batch of clemency actions includes commutations for dozens of nonviolent drug offenders.
The president acknowledges that there are limits to executive power, even during a public health emergency.
The Constitution's words, history, and structure suggest the best answer is no. He can't plead, "I beg my pardon."
Eviction bans were enacted as an emergency public health measure. They’re quickly becoming a permanent policy.
In a Thursday afternoon announcement, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) said Trump committed "an act of sedition" by inciting a riot on Wednesday afternoon.
I supported the previous impeachment of Trump, and would be happy to see him impeached and convicted now. But before proceeding, we should carefully consider how effective a new impeachment effort is likely to be.
The 45th president busted norms left and right. But the abuse of executive power didn't start and won't end with him.
This would prevent repetition of some of the shenanigans Trump has used to divert funds for his border wall project.
A newly released OLC opinion asserts the White House can require independent agencies to comply with Executive Orders on regulatory review.
Joe Biden can easily stop further work on the wall, protect property owners against further takings of private property, and save money in the process. Additional steps may be tougher, but are still worth considering.
President Trump's use of the pardon power confirms Anti-Federalist fears more than did his predecessors'.
A new book holds valuable lessons for the president-elect.
The list also included several drug war victims.
Politics ruining your holidays? Now you can pay for the privilege.
That’s a rare position for modern White House residents, and not necessarily a popular one with the public.
Full pardons were given to the four contractors convicted of murdering Iraqis in a firefight in Baghdad.
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Current law can allow the president to route around Congress indefinitely.
Though journalists tend to despise the WikiLeaks founder, his fate could impact the future of their profession.
A pardon is something granted, like a gift, and it is presumed one cannot grant something to themselves.
A "self-pardon" might bring about exactly the prosecution it seeks to avoid.
President Trump pardoned a turkey and an agent of Turkey. Will he give himself a lame duck pardon next?
The president has the worst record for clemency in modern history.
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If Trump isn’t interested, maybe the Biden administration could get started with a few acts of mercy.
"It's time that we start thinking about reining in the powers that we've let slip to this institution," says the Cato Institute's Gene Healy.
As the Biden-Harris campaign transitions to the Biden-Harris transition, they announce who will help staff the administration.
Trump claimed the power to issue a national eviction moratorium during COVID. Could that pave the way for the mask mandates Biden clearly wants?
President-elect Joe Biden has promised to fully reinstate DACA. But such a move will surely be challenged in court. Here's an easy way to reduce the risk that such challenges might succeed.
There are at least 11 trillion reasons to be very scared about what comes next.
The surveillance whistleblower has a child on the way and little sign a pardon is forthcoming.
In an age of parties run by extremists, the next majority is just an election away, explains political scientist Morris P. Fiorina.
Whether Trump or Biden wins, the Stanford political scientist says "unstable majorities" will persist in the coming decade.
All five cases were recommended to the White House by commutation recipient Alice Marie Johnson.
The implications of this move are as yet unclear.
As a professor, Judge Barrett expressed a skepticism of Executive Power that is uncommon among Republican nominees.
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The divided 2-1 decision is the first court of appeals ruling to rule on the legality of a key part of the funding diversion effort.