President Obama to pardon undocumented immigrants by using the power the Constitution grants him — and only him — to pardon individuals for “offenses against the United States.” The president’s unilateral ability to forgo punishment is uncontested and supported by over a hundred years of Supreme Court precedent: the pardon power. It has been consistently interpreted to include the power to grant broad amnesties from prosecution to large groups when the president deems it in the public interest. Such pardons have been used by presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Most recently, Jimmy Carter issued a pardon to around half a million men who had violated draft laws to avoid military service in Vietnam.
Peter L. Markowitz
This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.
