It’s settled law that the power of a President to issue pardons is absolute.\u00a0 (The same is true of 41 state governors; the remaining states have a board that performs the same function vice their chief executive.) \u00a0 A pardon is not subject to being overturned by legislative action or judicial review.\u00a0 Once a pardon is issued and accepted, it’s a done deal.\u00a0 The individual concerned is legally “forgiven” their crime.<\/p>\n
Blanket pardons (e.g., for “any and all crimes that were or may have been committed”) are similarly settled law.\u00a0 Ford did exactly that when he pardoned Nixon.<\/p>\n
The legal question I have is this:\u00a0 can a chief executive – either Federal or state – issue himself<\/em> <\/strong>a pardon for “any and all crimes committed while in office”?\u00a0 To my knowledge, it’s never happened.\u00a0 But it has been publicly discussed more than once during my lifetime.<\/p>\n Any of the lawyers who regularly read, please weigh in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"