Term Paper on "Pardon Power of the President"

Term Paper 6 pages (1622 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

pardoning powers of the United States president. The writer explores the general powers to pardon that are given to the president and the controversies that have come up with regard to that power over the years.

Pardon Power of the President

When the authors of the United States Constitution put the document together they provided a clause that allows a U.S. president to grant specific pardons to people who are incarcerated.

While this sounds like a reasonable power to give to someone overseeing the most power nation in the world it has come under scrutiny and fire many times throughout the years. One of the issues opponents of that pardoning power have with the provision is that presidents who are on their way out of office, have been known to provide last minute pardons to people the general public or Congress would never pardon if given the choice (Black, 2001). There has been recent movement to remove the pardoning power from the president however, since the beginning of the nation's history Americans have been careful and insistent about upholding the original constitution as it stands and without restructuring its meaning and intent. Today, the presidential pardon is a controversial issue that continues to spark debate nationwide.

The Power

Historically, it is believed that during the discussion about writing the constitution there was a debate with regard to providing pardon power to the president. At one point in those discussions it was suggested that the president only be allowed to pardon with the agreement of the Senate. Another idea tossed about was the idea to block the president from granting pardons to those already convicted and to those in trouble for treason. All of these limitations were discussed, argued and rejected with an end result of giving the United States president unlimited power to pardon any federal offender (Black, 2001).

The only exception that the framers of the constitution made was to not allow the president to grant a pardon in the case of impeachment.

The power of pardon granted to the United States president has been tried in the United States Supreme Court many times over the years and in each case the Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that the U.S. president can pardon any federal crime that he wants to and he can do it for any reason he or she desires. Furthermore the court declared the president does not even have to give a reason for the pardon to be able to exercise that power (Black, 2001).

While it sounds like an obscure power that may never be used except in extreme cases the truth is that every president in the history of the nation has used the pardon power at least once. The two presidents that did not use their power to pardon died after a matter of months in office and most likely simply had not had time to use it before they died.

Other than those two presidents every president in office has pardoned at least one person.

The record-holder, Franklin D. Roosevelt, issued 3,687 individual pardons. Many presidents have granted blanket pardons to large groups, such as Confederate soldiers or Vietnam draft evaders (Black, 2001)."

While recent history provides America with some stories of pardons there have also been some notable cases throughout U.S. history.

In 1794, there was a revolt against taxes being placed on whiskey. At that time, farmers in Pennsylvania made the poor decision to actually tar and feather several tax officials. President George Washington later pardoned those who had taken part in the act but were not yet sentenced or had not yet been indicted (Black, 2001).

When John Adams was the president many people were convicted of the Alien and Sedition Acts who had been supporters of Thomas Jefferson who was Adams' rival. As soon as Jefferson later took office he pardoned everyone who had been convicted through the Alien and Sedition Act.

After the 1862 Dakota War in Minnesota, 303 Indians were sentenced to death in hasty military trials. President Abraham Lincoln put a hold on the executions and read the trial transcripts. He ultimately approved 38 executions and pardoned the rest. When told this had cost him political support in Minnesota, Lincoln replied, "I could not afford to hang men for votes (Black, 2001)."

One of the earliest incidences of Congress attempting to block the power of pardon by a United States president was in 1863, 1865, 1867 and 1868. It was during those years that president Andrew Jackson made the decision to pardon those who had fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Members of Congress took issue with that decision and the case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court where the court ruled the president had an unlimited power to make the decision he made and to pardon who he wished to pardon (Black, 2001).

One of the more interesting cases of presidential pardon happened in 1920. At that time Eugene Debs who was a Socialist and ran against president Warren Harding and conducted his campaign from prison was pardoned. Debs was in prison for showing public opposition to World War I. Harding provided the nation with a Christmas time pardon for hundreds of inmates including Debs and then invited Debs to the White House to meet and talk with the president (Black, 2001).

Throughout the years presidential pardons have sparked intense controversy. Issues such as Richard Nixon deciding to pardon Jimmy Hoffa, and then the public later finding out that Hoffa had previously made several illegal contributions to the Nixon campaign fund gave rise to scrutinizing the pardon power of the president.

Later president Gerald Ford riled the public once again when he publicly pardoned Nixon for any federal crimes he may have committed while he was president. Ford did this when Nixon was not even under any indictment which sparked an angry outcry from public officials and residents alike.

When Ford later decided to pardon any Vietnam draft resister if they were willing to perform two years of community service, his successor President Jimmy Carter took it one step further and announced he was going to pardon any draft dodger who applied with no community service requirement as a condition of that pardon (Black, 2001).

One of the issues surrounding the presidential power of pardon is that presidents who are on their way out of office, and will not be politically damaged by their pardoning decisions have been known to offer pardons literally within days of leaving office.

One well-known case along these lines is the case of George Steinbrenner. He was convicted of providing illegal campaign contributions to Nixon's 1972 campaign. He was also the owner of the New York Yankees. A mere few days before leaving office president Ronald Reagan announced he was granting a pardon to Steinbrenner.

Iran-contra conspirators: A month before leaving office, Bush pardoned six Reagan administration officials - including Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger - who were implicated in the Iran-contra scandal. Four had pleaded guilty and two were about to face trial. Critics alleged that the president feared that Weinberger's imminent trial might implicate Bush in the scandal (Black, 2001)."

All of these and other pardons by past presidents have often raised the question about how much power a president should have in the case of an already convicted felon. If the convict had a trial, was found guilty by a judge or jury, the judge did not choose to exercise the right to overturn the conviction, the governor did not get involved and the public did not stop the process, why is it a president can step in and grant the pardon? Because the constitution says that he or she can do so (Black, 2001).

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