Who says a specific group of people can’t be, “All Americans?” There’s nothing in the Constitution that provides limits on the pardon power. In theory, if they wanted to, a president could issue a pardon for every American for every violation of federal law ever committed.
There’s nothing in the Constitution that provides limits on the pardon power.
Well, the constitution never explicitly gave the supreme court the power of judicial review, but they just grabbed that power and everyone in government just rolled with it.
Similarly, the supreme court could rule that if a pardon is “too broad” then its not valid. And then trump just take that ruling and say “hey look, the supreme court says the pardons are invalid, ARREST THE DEMS!”
Edit: And also, if Biden did that, he could inadvertently free people who are rightfully convicted of violent crimes. Think of all the mass shooters in prison right now. And also it wouldn’t matter anyways. Being LGBT is still on the way of getting outlawed in the future. Political dissent can still be suppressed via a weaponized DoJ. Pardons don’t apply to the future
Of course there could be rulings on anything. But you’re inventing the “specificity” argument from whole cloth. Historically, there has never been any ruling establishing such limits on presidential pardons. And it’s not even on the radar of potential rulings circulating in right-wing circles. There are a lot of dubious legal theories that right wingers have proposed, such as creative interpretations to get around birthright citizenship. But there aren’t conservative legal scholars out there arguing that the pardoning power should be redefined.
The court could also just straight-up rule various demographic groups to be illegal and worthy of imprisonment without trial. There’s really no point on worrying about purely hypothetical rulings that have no evidence that they are even being considered.
The is an invention entirely of your own creation.
Who says a specific group of people can’t be, “All Americans?” There’s nothing in the Constitution that provides limits on the pardon power. In theory, if they wanted to, a president could issue a pardon for every American for every violation of federal law ever committed.
Well, the constitution never explicitly gave the supreme court the power of judicial review, but they just grabbed that power and everyone in government just rolled with it.
Similarly, the supreme court could rule that if a pardon is “too broad” then its not valid. And then trump just take that ruling and say “hey look, the supreme court says the pardons are invalid, ARREST THE DEMS!”
Edit: And also, if Biden did that, he could inadvertently free people who are rightfully convicted of violent crimes. Think of all the mass shooters in prison right now. And also it wouldn’t matter anyways. Being LGBT is still on the way of getting outlawed in the future. Political dissent can still be suppressed via a weaponized DoJ. Pardons don’t apply to the future
Of course there could be rulings on anything. But you’re inventing the “specificity” argument from whole cloth. Historically, there has never been any ruling establishing such limits on presidential pardons. And it’s not even on the radar of potential rulings circulating in right-wing circles. There are a lot of dubious legal theories that right wingers have proposed, such as creative interpretations to get around birthright citizenship. But there aren’t conservative legal scholars out there arguing that the pardoning power should be redefined.
The court could also just straight-up rule various demographic groups to be illegal and worthy of imprisonment without trial. There’s really no point on worrying about purely hypothetical rulings that have no evidence that they are even being considered.
The is an invention entirely of your own creation.