Should Presidents Have the Power to Self-Pardon?

What’s the story?

• President Donald Trump said on Monday that he has a right to pardon himself, though he wouldn’t as he's committed no crime.

Trump lawyers argue president has the power

• Talk of a potential self-pardon was reignited over the weekend when The New York Times published a 20-page letter from former Trump attorney Jay Sekulow to special counsel Robert Mueller.
• Trump’s legal team argued that the president couldn’t have committed obstruction in the Russia investigation because the Constitution grants him the power to shut down the investigation or even pardon himself:

“He could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired," the attorneys wrote to Mueller.

• Trump’s “actions here, by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer, could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself.”

Does the president have a Constitutional right to end the investigation or pardon himself?

• Not everyone agrees with how Trump and his legal team are reading the Constitution:

• Legal scholars have been joining democrats is pushing back on the idea of a presidential self-pardon.
• “I think it’s pretty clear that there’s a right answer, and that answer is self-pardon should not be regarded as valid,” Richard Primus, a legal scholar and law professor at the University of Michigan, told Fox News.

“A power to self-pardon would violate the basic rule-of-law principle that no person should be allowed to adjudicate his own case.”

• A Justice Department memorandum from 1974 asserted the president did not have the right to pardon themselves.

 "Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself," Mary Lawton, former acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in the memorandum.

• However Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar and law professor at George Washington University, told Fox News that while the Constitution should bar self-pardon, it doesn’t:

“The language of Article II is quite explicit in giving the president a pardon power over federal offenses with the only exception related to impeachments. Donald Trump can certainly make a good-faith textual case for the right to self-pardon.”

What do you think?

Should presidents have the power to self-pardon? Would you accept Trump pardoning himself or would it create, for you, a constitutional crisis? If Trump pardoned himself, would you want your reps to push back? Hit Take Action and let them know, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Creative Commons)