Reply #17: unfortunately i very much do NOT like the idea of limiting pardons [View All]

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at least not in the manner you suggest. if the pardon is limited to people and acts outside government, then local and state governments can criminalize and prosecute all sorts of things in order to wield disproportionate power over the federal government.

this sort of stuff doesn't happen now, because of the pardon. remove the pardon and eventually someone will figure out how to exploit that.

perhaps there are less drastic ways to curtail the pardon, but this is dangerous constitutional ground to be mucking around with. the founders did have a pretty good idea what they were doing, and as a result we've been spared over 2 centuries from seeing the sort of crap they had to put up with from the british in their day. some of that could return if we do the wrong thing.


my scenario for a pardon is not possible just yet. the banana republicans would have to do a lot of careful, coordinated public perception manipulation to lay the groundwork for it. consequently, we must be very concerned with fighting back when they start saying things that might eventually make a pardon seem anything other than outrageous.