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There’s a growing movement by Republicans to void some of the pardons issued by President Joe Biden.
It would be an unprecedented maneuver of political retribution, and something for which there is no basis in the Constitution or existing law.
The power to pardon is set up for the president as one of the few unchecked powers in American government.
It takes up less than a sentence in the Constitution — “he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”
It doesn’t say anything about an autopen or even require that a president physically sign off on a pardon, much less pass a competency test. Elections every four years are the competency test, and the 25th Amendment allows for incompetent presidents to be removed from office. Biden’s Cabinet did not remove him.
To find a historical precedent for the voiding of a pardon, you have to go back to a post-Revolution case in Virginia that featured three men convicted of treason for joining the British.
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