In Reply to: Seems to me presidential pardons are absolute. posted by BluBlood on October 13, 2026 at 22:17:41
place -- to be defined separately for the power to pardon vs commutation? I think that's where we need to start the whole discussion.
I can see some cases where pardons and commutations may be needed (judicial mistakes, shifting legal landscapes, moral ambiguities, harsh sentencing, end of life situations, etc), and I think the first thing we need to do is to define them clearly and have independent evaluation of the classification. Then the question would be whether presidential clemency is the best (scalable and most sustainable) method to achieve it or should we do some reform and small restructuring for those types of cases.
If we somehow deem it essential that the president should have this power (and tradition is not a valid argument in my book) then we need to place restrictions on them, such as the number of pardons they can grant, or whether there should be an independent body that's able to override what practically amounts to the president's override of the judicial system.