ARG Polling: Presidential Pardons in the Constitutional Convention

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'll be addressing the Convention at length in the near future on the merits of this proposal, but for the sake of the public I'll post a "sneak preview" here:

1) As should already be apparent, the new Constitution will massively increase the power of the Regional governments, granting them exclusive jurisdiction over a variety of important issues, allowing them to regulate Senate elections, and otherwise absolving them from the governmental constraints established under the current document. This is, generally speaking, a good thing; but it requires that we have a strong national executive as well to prevent the Union from fracturing as it did during the days of the Articles of Confederation. Therefore, weakening the pardoning power or otherwise stripping executive privileges should be approached with caution, as moving too much in that direction could seriously weaken the Union.

2) From a Constitutional theory standpoint, the power to grant pardons and reprieves is unquestionably an executive privilege. The role of the legislature is to make the laws; it is up to the executive to enforce them and, when prudent, utilize his executive prerogative to make exceptions. (This is all laid out very eloquently in Locke's Second Treatise, if anyone's interested). Allowing a single body to both legislate and grant immunity from said legislation to persons of their choosing is the very antithesis of the separation of powers that seems to be the main argument for this change.