Since June 28, 2004
December 24, 2020
A challenge for those troubled by Trump's final month clemencies: identify dozens, hundreds of comparable cases for Biden's first month
It is hardly surprising that Prez Trump has kicked off his final weeks in office with sets of clemency grants that include all sorts of friends and family and politically-charged defendants (basics here and here). It is perhaps even less surprising that Trump's latest flourish of clemency grants is garnering lots and lots of criticisms from lots and lots of quarters (just a few examples are here and here and here and here and here).
But particularly notable in the first wave of reaction was US Senator Chris Murphy tweeting here that "It’s time to remove the pardon power from the Constitution." Many tweeters have pushed back, and Rachel Barkow's tweet thread here is especially effective and I wanted to highlight some of what she says. I recommend the whole thread, but these portions (with my bolding) partially motivated the title of this post: