We have it here as well but it isn’t a free for all. The President receives a list of proposed pardons that have to be vetted one by one by a legal team. Certain offenses are not eligible and only sentences below a given number of years may be pardoned.
It’s not like the man can hand out pardons on a whim.
Generally, the pardon power is meant to be a check on the legislative and judicial branch, and thus it is designed to be this powerful.
Obama used his pardon power to free individuals who were nonviolent drug offenders who got sentenced to years often for simple possession. This doesn’t mean that he didn’t use a slew of lawyers to find these cases. He very much did. But he could, literally, go through a roster of inmates and just pick random people to pardon.
Trump, if reelected, will likely pardon himself and it will need to go through the courts to see if that’s even feasible. Given the current nature of our highest court, it likely will be found constitutional.
Nobody knows, including the president. Trump thought he could pardon himself. There aren’t any restrictions other than it must be a crime with federal jurisdiction, the only jurisdiction over which the president has direct power. He can even pardon people in advance.
We have it here as well but it isn’t a free for all. The President receives a list of proposed pardons that have to be vetted one by one by a legal team. Certain offenses are not eligible and only sentences below a given number of years may be pardoned.
It’s not like the man can hand out pardons on a whim.
How does it work in the US?
Generally, the pardon power is meant to be a check on the legislative and judicial branch, and thus it is designed to be this powerful.
Obama used his pardon power to free individuals who were nonviolent drug offenders who got sentenced to years often for simple possession. This doesn’t mean that he didn’t use a slew of lawyers to find these cases. He very much did. But he could, literally, go through a roster of inmates and just pick random people to pardon.
Trump, if reelected, will likely pardon himself and it will need to go through the courts to see if that’s even feasible. Given the current nature of our highest court, it likely will be found constitutional.
Nobody knows, including the president. Trump thought he could pardon himself. There aren’t any restrictions other than it must be a crime with federal jurisdiction, the only jurisdiction over which the president has direct power. He can even pardon people in advance.