Discussion»Questions»Legal» While the current prez is prez let's suspend our Justice System. He can overturn/overrule everything. He is the law of the land isn't he?
You're thinking of Obama when he legislated with "Executive Orders" . . . (how many of those EO's did the Supreme Court ultimately overturn, but not until after damage to our Constitution was done by his malfeasance?)
The question makes "pardons" the topic. But since there has been only one, I see no value in comparing this pardon to those of other presidents based on the total number issued.
Here’s how Arizona Federal Judge Susan Bolton — Arpaio claims she was biased against him — explained the criminal contempt decision against him a month ago: "Not only did (Arpaio) abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise."
On its merits, the pardon rebukes equal justice and the rule of law.
In 2011 a federal court ordered Arpaio to stop detaining people just because he suspected they were not citizens, a policy that plainly profiled and targeted Latinos. He routinely violated that court order. So he was convicted of criminal contempt of court earlier this year.
This was not mercy for some low level drug offender, say, who had served too much time. The President pardoned a public official who was found to have violated a court order that upheld the constitutional rights of minorities.
We've long worried Trump might trample judicial independence. Recall that last year, he loudly decried a federal judge in his own fraud case because the Indiana-born jurist was "Mexican."
What can be done? Not much, likely, right away. Congress should consider writing into law the procedures to ensure that the pardon power is not abused, and to make sure the Justice Department plays its proper role.
There may be even bigger consequences. During the ratification of the Constitution, James Madison explained that abuse of the pardon power could be grounds for impeachment.
In the Watergate scandal, one of the counts of obstruction of justice being brought against Richard Nixon was that he dangled clemency before one of the conspirators in an effort to buy his silence. That was to save Nixon's skin, not just to pay off a political debt. If Trump acts to pardon his allies in the Russia probe, calls for impeachment would grow to hurricane strength.
tom jackson 