Exactly this. The institution of unilateral pardons has always seemed questionable and inspired by the worst abuses of monarchy. I鈥檓 surprised that the framers, fleeing this kind of corrupt tyranny, sought to replicate its unbridled power in such a way.
Chris Murphy 馃煣
 @ChrisMurphyCT
24 Dec 2020
Once one party allows the pardon power to become a tool of criminal enterprise, its danger to democracy outweighs its utility as an instrument of justice. It鈥檚 time to remove the pardon power from the Constitution.
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I think the argument on the other side is that our justice system should be designed so that errors are predominantly being too lenient rather than too severe, and thus we should accept letting some guilty people off as the price to pay to avoid imprisoning unjustly.
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Replying to @davidbaron @adambroach
I'm also not sure how much systemic redesign we should do around the threat model of "incompetently corrupt president". Seems like other threat models are worth considering, and we probably need bigger changes to address them.

Dec 25, 2020 路 5:53 AM UTC

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Replying to @davidbaron
I get that, and even without it, we鈥檝e seen some pretty bad abuses in the past. Clinton鈥檚 pardon of Marc Ridge was a travesty, and I would argue that Ford鈥檚 pardon of Nixon set the stage for a lot of what happened in the past four years.
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To be clear, I鈥檓 not against pardons as a mechanism, even when fully removed form the judiciary. It鈥檚 the unilateral, unchecked nature that creates a moral hazard here.