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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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The alleged reasoning is that the pardons only apply to those already convicted convicted of a crime

I actually agree with this, but we're way past that point (for better or for worse). But I do think it's way past time we had a constitutional amendment that the presidential pardon cannot be used as a way to block charges from being brought, it can only be used to overturn cases that were duly tried in a court of law. It's too late to undo the preemptive pardons of the past, but we should prevent future ones.

It's too late to undo the preemptive pardons of the past, but we should prevent future ones.

Not really, the SC hasn’t ruled on preemptive pardons, and nor will they ever unless somebody who was preemptively pardoned is charged, because that is the only way someone would have standing. And nobody cares about Nixon anymore.

I guess I was thinking more of the absolute shitstorm it would cause, not in legal terms. There would be way too much "but they did X so I want Y to stand", such that it would be hard to sort through. Far more practical (if not ideal) to let the bad pardons stand without sorting all that out.