January 20th, 2025 was an unusual day. It’s not often that two different presidents engage in highly controversial acts on the very same day. I am referring to the flurry of pardons at the end of the Biden administration and the beginning of the Trump administration.
America has become so polarized that it is hard to imagine any proposed constitutional amendment gaining the needed 38 states required for ratification. But I wonder if pardons might be an exception.
In Republican dominated states, one would think that the Biden pardons would provide a strong argument for an amendment restricting presidential pardons.
That could take the form of an outright ban on pardons, or a requirement that they first clear a special court appointed to consider potential pardons.
In Democratic dominated states, proponents could point to the recent Trump pardons of the J6 group, as well as some politically motivated pardons from the end of his first term in office.
I’m not sure I know a single person that is not outraged by at least some of the pardons issued over the past few days, regardless of their party affiliation. If this isn’t enough to trigger a constitutional amendment, then I question whether any more amendments will ever be able to attract the necessary support.
Ironically, one of the best arguments for ending the pardon power of the presidency was inadvertently made by Donald Trump, in perhaps his finest moment during his first term. In a brief speech lasting less than 3 minutes, he made a passionate argument for the necessity of punishing those responsible for what he called the “violent” attack on the law enforcement officers that were trying to protect the Capitol building and its occupants. Trump was right, they should “pay” for their crimes. If presidents did not have power to pardon, they would have paid.
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