The pardon example does not at all seem very targeted, the constitution doesn’t even say that weird shit needs to happen before it can be used, and my impression is (though I haven’t done a review of the literature) that much of the time it’s used for nepotism and cronyism, so that one’s friends, families, and political allies don’t have to obey the laws. Recently its been used as a defense for the president himself to avoid laws and justice.
Yes, comparatively its less dumb than things of the form “the president can decide whether there’s an emergency x and then under those circumstances they get a whole bunch more power”, but its still a great tax on the principle of equality under and rule of law.
That this power was used against Nixon is special because it was the president helping their political enemies, it is clearly, on its face, a bad thing to set such a precedent that once president one is not subject to laws anymore because other presidents will bail you out.
The pardon example does not at all seem very targeted, the constitution doesn’t even say that weird shit needs to happen before it can be used, and my impression is (though I haven’t done a review of the literature) that much of the time it’s used for nepotism and cronyism, so that one’s friends, families, and political allies don’t have to obey the laws. Recently its been used as a defense for the president himself to avoid laws and justice.
Yes, comparatively its less dumb than things of the form “the president can decide whether there’s an emergency x and then under those circumstances they get a whole bunch more power”, but its still a great tax on the principle of equality under and rule of law.
That this power was used against Nixon is special because it was the president helping their political enemies, it is clearly, on its face, a bad thing to set such a precedent that once president one is not subject to laws anymore because other presidents will bail you out.