GOP Congressman Bacon Opposes President’s Constitutional Pardon Power
So much for the Constitution.
The Fox News headline was blunt: “GOP lawmaker joins Democrat-led effort to limit Trump’s pardon power,” with the subtitle, “Rep. Don Bacon signed onto a bill that would establish a congressional review process for pardons.”
Let’s take a look at what the inconvenient document known as the Constitution in fact says about the presidential pardon power. It reads, with bold print for emphasis supplied:
Article II, Section 2, Clause 1:
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
Pretty clear. There is not a word from the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution about a “congressional review process for pardons.”
And remembering the history of the Founding Fathers who so painstakingly wrote the Constitution, it not only could not be clearer, it amazes that Rep. Bacon — a Republican no less! — has set about trying to undermine the Constitution, justifying his actions this way:
“Across multiple administrations, we’ve seen legitimate questions raised about how this authority has been used at the same time, the ability of Congress to provide oversight has weakened,” Bacon said in a statement. “Frankly, it is clear to me the pardon authority has been abused.”
In short, Rep. Bacon wants to make Congress the deciding factor in a president’s constitutionally authorized power to grant pardons. Skipping over the hard fact that the final arbiter, per the Founding Fathers, on whether a presidential pardon is good, bad, or indifferent has belonged to, yes indeed, the American people.
Case in point?
When President Nixon, ensnared by the Watergate scandal, finally resigned in August of 1974, he was, per the Constitution, succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.
Given the raging political waters at the time, with demands from the Left to both prosecute Nixon and send him to prison, Ford made the reluctant decision to end the uproar by pardoning Nixon so the country could move on.
He did. And just as Ford anticipated, all hell broke loose. There was a congressional hearing on Ford’s decision, with Ford becoming the first president to testify in front of a congressional committee.
This was 1974, which is to say an election year. And, quite expectedly, the Democrats made Ford’s pardon a main issue in the fall campaign. The results were serious political damage to the GOP. Democrats won four Senate seats from Republicans. On the House side, the GOP had a net loss of 49 seats.
Wikipedia records:
After Ford left the White House in 1977, he privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which states that a pardon carries an imputation of guilt and that acceptance carries a confession of guilt.
The hard fact of history is that the final verdict on Ford’s pardon of Nixon came from the American people. They didn’t like Ford’s pardon, and they made a point of rejecting Ford’s decision in the fall of 1974 elections. Two years later, Ford himself was on the ballot, and the American people made a point of electing his Democrat opponent, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
Which shows that in fact the final arbiter of whether a presidential pardon is good, bad, or indifferent rests — as it should — in the hands, the votes, of the American people.
What Rep. Bacon is about is removing that pardon power from the American people and giving it to a handful of Capitol Hill politicians. This decision is so badly taken that one can hardly believe that a Republican Congressman of all people would be out there supporting it.
Be that as it may, Nebraska’s Rep. Don Bacon is doing just that.
The obvious question now is whether the American people will agree with Rep. Bacon that the final verdict on any presidential pardon should be taken out of their hands and given to a relative handful of Capitol Hill’s professional politicians, Washington insiders one and all.
Stay tuned.
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