Republicunts have lost their goddamned minds. That this is seen as necessary, even at the margins, means the Republic is fucking lost. All for an orange traitor shitcunt.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”
Might want to check out Burdick v US.
I don’t think that’s a settled matter.
From the Wikipedia article about Burdick:
Although the Supreme Court’s opinion stated that a pardon carries “an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it,” this was part of the Court’s dictum for the case. Whether the acceptance of a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt by the recipient is disputed. In Lorance v. Commandant, USDB (2021) the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that “there is no confession and Lorance does not otherwise lose his right to petition for habeas corpus relief for his court-martial conviction and sentence. The case was remanded for further action not inconsistent with the court’s opinion.”
SCOTUS: it depends. Are we talking about a democrat or republican?
Pardons should go away.
Exactly … why bother with a complicated justice system when one person can step in to ignore the entire process. The fact that one individual can pardon others means that it is an incomplete and flawed system.
I think the presidential office should go away. It’s too much power for one man in our modern world.
The US constitution should go away. It’s short-sighted and completely anachronistic.
I mean it should be updated that’s for damn sure. But the average person seems to think that it is sacrosanct despite the people who wrote it saying otherwise.
It should be rewritten completely. But we Americans are too simple a people to take on the task.
Given who’s in charge of most states at the moment, a rewrite probably isn’t going to turn out very well.
You’re right and we’re not that far from the absolute chaos that will come with a new Constitutional Convention.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
If two thirds of the state legislatures call for it, there will be a new convention to propose amendments to the constitution. Currently, there are four groups pushing states for a new constitutional convention; the Balanced Budget Amendment campaign, the Convention of States campaign, the Wolf-PAC campaign, and the term limits campaign. These groups have it total convinced 28 states to call for it. They need just six more states. It could happen during Trump’s term because the right has been pushing for one for a long time. Here’s why it would be a mess.
But here’s the catch: there are absolutely no rules for an Article V Convention outlined in the Constitution.
That means the group of people convening to rewrite our Constitution could be totally unelected and unaccountable. There is nothing that could limit the convention to a single issue, so the delegates could write amendments that revoke any of our most cherished rights – like our right to peaceful protest, our freedom of religion, or our right to privacy. There are also no rules preventing corporations from pouring money into the convention to ensure they get their way.
In short, an Article V Convention would be a disaster. It would lead to long and costly legal battles, uncertainty about how our democracy functions, and likely economic instability.
Frankly I don’t see any real indication it’ll matter. If Trump thinks lynching someone will make him more popular he’ll do it.
He’ll do it just because he’s petty and thin-skinned.
He should have pardoned himself just to force the Supremes to rule on the unlawfulness of self-pardons. That’d block Trump from later trying it.
