| ▲ | bloppe 2 hours ago |
| I've often wondered what would happen if a president explicitly offers to pardon anybody who murders members of Congress. Would they settle on reigning in the pardon power with an amendment? We're sort of already there. A lot of the Jan 6 rioters were openly trying to murder congressmen. The fact they weren't successful isn't super reassuring. |
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| ▲ | 9dev 15 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| Nothing would happen, because SCOTUS decided to grant the president immunity for any crime committed in their official function, which would be the case here. It would literally be possible for the president to order congress killed, offer an automatic pardon to anyone carrying out this order, and establish a monarchy. This single ruling will haunt the United States for the rest of its existence. |
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| ▲ | didgetmaster 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Like most political arguments, if you listen carefully; those who advocate for or against pardons, only want them to go one way. A pardon is only a protection against a 'vengeful administration' if that administration is not your party. Pardons are only a miscarriage of justice if those pardoned don't share your ideology. |
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| ▲ | jfengel an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | My (leftist) opinion is that we don't give enough pardons. By the time people get out of prison, their lives are pretty much wrecked. We should have a lot more clemency and compassion. That's what the pardon is for. If that means a ton of literal insurrectionists go free, that's fine with me. We elected someone precisely to do that. It's on the voters if we elected someone who was literally treasonous himself. I hope the insurrectionists take the opportunity to get on with their lives. I gather that quite a few have already been banned for other crimes, and that's too bad. I don't want prison to be vengeance. I want prison to make us all safer. I'd like the President to take a lot of leeway in finding people who are going to be productive citizens if they were given that gift. | |
| ▲ | actionfromafar an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | That’s what ypu tell yourself to feel better. But it’s not true. | |
| ▲ | krapp an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I'm a leftist, and a Democrat by necessity (not by choice) and I would be fine if the power of pardon was removed for Presidents who share my ideology. I would rather have working separation of powers and reform the justice system than give one person carte blanche power to nullify it based on their whim. Not everyone making a political argument is engaging in cynical tribalism. Believe it or not, some people do actually believe in things. |
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| ▲ | aexer0e 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Pardons only stop the federal government from prosecuting someone, the states would still go after those individuals |
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| ▲ | dawnerd 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | And in theory a future administration could do something like threaten to withhold funding to states that don’t prosecute. |
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