What if a sitting president pardoned everyone one who was in prison for, say, crimes related to marijuana offenses, and vowed to do the same to all those convicted in the future. Would it basically render marijuana offenses as not-punishable-by-jail-time (at least for the remainder of his/her term)? What about insider trading? Or murder?
He could do that; the pardon power is plenary (but covers only Federal offenses, as I’m sure you know). But it would be political suicide, and might - nay, surely would - also lead to impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate for abuse of power.
And to think of that situation from a practical point of view… He can’t simply sign the pardon for 100,000 (chosen out of thin air) and call it a night. He’d have to sign each one individually, I assume… Which would mean signing his name over and over at a speed that probably wouldn’t catch up to the number of marijuana crimes being committed and ticketed.
Weird, I know, but just figured I’d throw that realist p.o.v. from the technical side of things.
The President’s signature goes on hundreds, sometimes thousands of pieces of paper per day. He only signs the important ones by hand. For the rest, he’s got a rubber stamp or a fancy auto-signing gizmo.
Also, I see no reason why he’d have to sign each pardon individually. A single proclamation listing all the names of those pardoned should be perfectly sufficient.
Well, as the outgoing president has shown, it’s really not about what you’re allowed, but what you can get away with.
Meaning, if he has the cabinet and congress on his side, if he can get the security agencies to pass down lies, if he has the whole nation enraptured and a media afraid to call him on anything, there’s almost nothing he can’t do. Like, say, start a war just to make his family and his vice president’s company rich. If the aforementioned people don’t like him so much, he’s a lame duck.
Hell, if the President lines up his cards right, he could do away with the whole democracy. Hitler did it.
But I guess that’s not a faithful answer to the OP. But it’s reality.