Presidential Pardons - when would you call it corrupt?

[Belsnickel]

(01-21-2021, 02:59 PM)Dill Wrote: Took me a while to get back to this, but the issue is interesting.

The war powers granted by the Constitution allot military command to the president, but Congress has not left it at that, placing various constraints on the exercise of command (e.g., the War Powers Act), when presidents appear to usurp Congress' right to declare war.  That makes me wonder if, with sufficient provocation, they might find some way of limiting the pardon power as well. 

Trump pardons so far, while certainly tarnishing the office of president and its prerogatives, have not risen to that level of provocation. And Biden is not likely exhibit Trump's venality in this regard, so concern over pardon abuse will likely dissipate in the next few years.

I know that in the past courts have generally upheld the pardon power as "limitless" (e.g., Ex parte Garland, which apparently rules out any Congressional action in the style of the aforementioned War Powers Act), but it's also clear that were Trump to attempt a self pardon, that would lead to judicial review--and likely a constraint on the pardon power. 

Seems to me that while the judicial branch can and has put constraints on the presidential pardon power, sufficiently offensive pardons could be limited by the courts, especially if they appeared intended to cover impeachable conduct on the president's part. 

Now that Trump is finally out and his pardoning finished, this looks like an issue that will fade away.

There is a big difference between the role of POTUS as CiC and the pardon power. The Constitution lays out a balanced system for the military by giving Congress the purse strings. Congress had the authority to limit the president's use of the military because they decide how to fund it. No such check exists on the pardon power, though. It isn't something that requires funding, which is the primary method of checking executive power that Congress has and while there is some judicial review, we've already discussed how the courts have held the power.