Pre-emptive Presidential Pardons

[Dissent Is Patriotic]

Can you be pardoned for a crime before you're ever charged?
By Jacob Leibenluft

Yep. In 1866, the Supreme Court ruled in Ex parte Garland that the pardon power "extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment." (In that case, a former Confederate senator successfully petitioned the court to uphold a pardon that prevented him from being disbarred.) Generally speaking, once an act has been committed, the president can issue a pardon at any time—regardless of whether charges have even been filed.


http://www.slate.com/id/2195689/

[FlyingSquirrel]

1. Can a president pardon himself?

:tinfoilhat:

[Dissent Is Patriotic]

2. Not sure...here's more from the article...

snip

There are some exceptions: The chief executive can't pardon someone for a violation of state law or nullify a civil ruling, and his power doesn't extend to convictions handed down in an impeachment proceeding. (It's also not clear whether the president can pardon himself for future convictions.)


On edit: Bush certainly is a pioneer of rule-breaking/stretching...so if anyone was gonna test it out I'd put my money on him.

[WeDidIt]

3. It's never been tested. n/t

[Youphemism]

5. If Bush tries to pardon himself, we'll just have to retroactively impeach him. :)

[laconicsax]

4. By definition, the pardoned admits to breaking the law.

[NV Whino]

6. Can we preemptively swear in Obama?

[rwenos]

7. No - See 25th Amendment

Outgoing President's term ends at noon on January 20. Incoming President's term begins as soon as he takes the oath of office, AFTER outgoing President's term ends.

[NV Whino]

8. Damn.

[nolabels]

9. They have broken so many laws they will probably forget a lot the ones they broke

It's just like with any other criminal enterprise, eventually the law of averages catches up with them no matter how slick they try to be

[elkston]

10. Yeah, they do that in "24" all the time.

Terrorist who have info bargain it away with promises of Presidential Pardons for current and FUTURE crimes.