Rep. Nadler Moves to Prevent Pre-Emptive White House Pardons

[Chris]

Rep. Nadler Moves to Prevent Pre-Emptive White House Pardons

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, introduced a Resolution in the House of Representatives demanding that President Bush refrain from issuing pre-emptive pardons of senior officials in his Administration during the final 90 days of office.  H.RES.1531 is in response to President Bush’s widespread abuses of power and potentially criminal transgressions against our Constitution.  The Resolution aims to prevent undeserved pardons of officials who may have been co-conspirators in the President’s unconstitutional policies, such as torture, illegal surveillance and curtailing of due process for defendants.


“This Resolution declares that we will not tolerate a last minute attempt by President Bush to shelter his cronies – cronies who may well be guilty of serious criminal offenses – from the full force of the law,” said Rep. Nadler.  “President Bush must not excuse his own officials from possibly illegal acts committed outside the context of their official duties.  Such pardons would merely obfuscate the truth and amount to a gross miscarriage of justice.”

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[Chris]

Too bad it's in the Constitution, and has been upheld by previous courts.

Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution gives the president "Power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."  A reprieve reduces the severity of a punishment without removing the guilt of the person reprieved.  A pardon removes both punishment and guilt.

As judicially interpreted, the president's power to grant reprieves and pardons is absolute.  Individual reprieves and pardons cannot be blocked by Congress or the courts.  The Framers of the Constitution envisioned the pardon power has having a narrow purpose in times of war and rebellion.  The president might offer pardons to rebellious factions as an inducement for a laying down of arms and national reconciliation.  Alexander Hamilton argued  in the Federalist Papers (No. 74) that "in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquillity of the common wealth; and which, if suffered to pass unimproved, it may never be possible afterwards to recall."

http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/pardon.html

[formerlurker]

Oh Mr. President, you have to do it now. 

Nadler you total jackass.    

[Chris_]

What an idiot and a jerk.

[Eupher]

The irritating thing about those POS stupid-ass resolutions (besides the fact they're useless documents except that the jerks who write them can point to them and say, "Look Mommy! See what I did! I made poopy!") is the bullshit phrase, "It is the sense of the......"

If the ****ing House of Representative had any SENSE they wouldn't be writing these useless documents on the taxpayer's dime.

****ing asshats. 

[Lord Undies]

The irritating thing about those POS stupid-ass resolutions (besides the fact they're useless documents except that the jerks who write them can point to them and say, "Look Mommy! See what I did! I made poopy!") is the bullshit phrase, "It is the sense of the......"

If the ****ing House of Representative had any SENSE they wouldn't be writing these useless documents on the taxpayer's dime.

****ing asshats. 

The really irritating thing about this is someone in congress feels perfectly free to present something so blatantly unconstitutional....and he is PROUD of it. 

In a pure world of the USA, even presenting something this anti-Constitutional should have his ass in front of a committee.

[AllosaursRus]

The really irritating thing about this is someone in congress feels perfectly free to present something so blatantly unconstitutional....and he is PROUD of it. 

In a pure world of the USA, even presenting something this anti-Constitutional should have his ass in front of a committee.

Or immediately be expelled. if you don't know the Constitution any better than this, what the hell are you doing in office in the first place?

Asshat!

[mamacags]

While this article made my blood boil I had to laugh too.  I don't think I have read the word asshat more times in my life than I have in the 15 minutes I have been reading stuff on CC this morning.

[NHSparky]

And we wonder why our elected officials scored WORSE on that civics exam than the average Joe.

[BlueStateSaint]

What an idiot and a jerk.

That chick may be an attention whore, but she's far better to look at than Nadler.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Congressional resolutions have all the power and significance of a fart in a windstorm.  However, Bush isn't likely to have the balls to do it in the first place, based on his record to date.  It will end up looking like he actually paid attention to this BS resolution, though the reality will be the thought just never crossed his mind beforehand.

[franksolich]

Oh Mr. President, you have to do it now.

Man, I surely hope so.  He has to do it now.

[Airwolf]

What a great big poke in the eye of the lefty loons and the MSM if President bush would pardon everyone the DUmmies hate.

[Eupher]

For one, I'd hate to see Bush pull the same kind of crap that Slick Willie pulled just before he unassed the Oval Orifice.

What's wrong is wrong, irrespective of the political party. Marc Rich no more deserved a pardon than Obama is qualified to be president. But both events happened, unfortunately.

No, I think Bush will be true to his principles right up to the end. He may pardon a person or two, but I just don't think that he'll be pardoning a sizeable percentage of the population of Attica State Prison, which is about what Slick Willie did. [/exaggeration]

I wouldn't mind seeing Bush pardon those two Border Patrol agents who were cashiered, regardless of the circumstances. I think those guys put their lives on the line and they deserve a break. The punk they shot in the ass wound up back in trouble, so in my view, the only wrong that was committed was that the perp wasn't put down permanently the first time.

[franksolich]

Something needs noted here; surely I'm not the only person who's seen it.

Pardons by the Impeached One were given to "big names," big-time criminals.

Pardons given thus far by George Bush have been given to "little people."

I guess that should speak volumes.

[USA4ME]

Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, introduced a Resolution in the House of Representatives demanding...

Demanding???  Demanding!?!

 

.