No pardons should be allowed during a transition period.

[Funtatlaguy]

Presidents are no longer at risk of losing voters in transition periods.
So they can pardon anyone they like.
End transition period pardons legislatively.

[onenote]

1. Little thing called the Constitution says, sorry, no can do.

The president's power to grant pardons cannot be constrained legislatively. Like it or not, Trump will remain President, with the full panoply of presidential powers until noon January 20, 2021.

[dware]

2. Ok, now,

all you have to do is get Congress to try to amend the Constitution, convince 2/3rds of the Congress to approve of the change and then convince 3/4ths of the states to ratify it.

Think the votes are there?

[PJMcK]

9. You wouldn't need a full Constitutional Convention

Last edited Wed Nov 25, 2020, 06:55 PM - Edit history (1)

A change to a president's pardon powers could be done with a Constitutional Amendment which can be done legislatively. The rest of your point is correct and you're right to point out how difficult it is to effectuate and Amendment. There have been only 33 Amendments passed by Congress but only 27 were ratified by the States. (Interestingly, that suggests an average of one Amendment every 9 years of our nation's history.)


ETA: Actually, my math and logic are slightly incorrect. The Bill of Rights has the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. They were nearly contemporaneous with the ratification of the Constitution.

Accordingly, there were only 17 Amendments that were ratified in roughly 240 years. Ergo, one Amendment every 14-1/4 years. The last Amendment to be ratified was the 27th which was ratified in 1992. It delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of representatives and was first proposed in 1789! Prior to that was the 26th which gave 18-year olds the right to vote and it was ratified in 1971.

It's been a long time since we've had an Amendment become law. Our dysfunctional and polarized society prevent any changes.

[dware]

11. Thanks for the information,

This is one of the things I love about DU, the abundance of info here.

[PJMcK]

13. Thank you!

Please read my edited post above. I made a logical error, oops!

Happy Thanksgiving!

[dware]

15. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours also.

[onenote]

18. More precisely: Congress can start the amendment process, but 3/4 of states still must ratify

And it takes a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate to send an amendment to the states.

In other words, don't hold your breath.

[PJMcK]

19. The last contemporary Amendment was ratified in 1971

It gives 18-year olds the right to vote.

That's how polarized and dysfunctional our country has become. We could never agree on something so big.

Happy Thanksgiving, onenote!

[Mike 03]

3. For outgoing governors too. Remember what Matt Bevin of Kentucky did?

Why did this US governor pardon child rapists and brutal killers?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/21/kentucky-governor-pardons-matt-bevin

[SmartVoter22]

4. We need reforms.

The Executive Branch must ask Congress for all the funds they spend. There are some that are not included; like secret service, the cars, the planes and general upkeep of items and services like the national park's maintenence of the White House, but Congress can certainly cut the Executive budget to reduce the personel they hire, they can reduce the office space they would like as well as reduce funding things like postage, the press office and put the First Family on food bank commodities for thier daily nutrition.

Congress could get as petty as Trump could ever hope to.

[dware]

5. Think about what you're saying,

that would be used against a Dem Admin. also.

[TheRealNorth]

12. unless its pardons for someone carrying a little too much mj

I don't like Democrats making some of these pardons given to politically-connected people either (like the Marc Rich pardon).

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. This is a very good suggestion, and it could apply to other activities, like scrapping treaties. .nt

[RussBLib]

7. seems like a good idea

make a president commit before the election. Unless perhaps a jury does not render a verdict until the transition period. Whenever, the right to pardon should be restricted somewhat.

Would be interesting to do a study of all presidents and who they pardoned, and when?

I'd watch it.

[tritsofme]

8. It cannot be done "legislatively" such a change would require an amendment to the Constitution.

[Funtatlaguy]

16. Darn. Well, that's no easy task.

[dsc]

10. I can see ending the transition period

but not limiting pardons during one. As a practical matter, nothing would stop a President from just pardoning people after the polls close but before the votes are counted.

[Funtatlaguy]

14. How about two weeks or a month before Election Day.

[dware]

17. But you still run headlong into the Constitution. nt

[keithbvadu2]

20. A change such as this would be inherently partisan.

A change such as this would be inherently partisan.

To have any chance of passage, it would have to be put into effect only after at least three elections have passed so that the party in control would be unknown at the time of this passage.

I doubt that either party would be willing to give up such power.