Press enter after choosing selection

Planet News

Planet News image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
July
Year
1974
OCR Text

Planet News

Pardon Me?

The Washington Post reports that, believe it or not, many leading constitutional scholars subscribe to the legal theory that President Nixon has the power to pardon himself for any crimes he may have committed.

The Post states that the Constitution specifically grants the President the right to grant pardons and clemency to any class of offenders, without review by either Congress or the courts. According to many legal scholars, there seems to be nothing in the Constitution which would prevent Nixon from pardoning himself.

A study of the US Pardon Law indicates that a pardon may be granted even before a person is convicted -- as is often done in the case of amnesty where clemency is granted without any trial or admission of guilt.

One of the more unusual aspects of the US Pardon Law is that a pardon or an act of clemency does not have to be made public when it is signed. The Post suggests that a president could sign his own pardon, and then keep it locked in a safe deposit box until needed at a later date.

Among those who argue that Nixon can pardon himself are Robert Bork, the onetime acting-Attorney General who is now the US Solicitor General; Texas law professor Charles Alan Wright, Nixon's consultant on Constitutional law; and Reed Cozart, the Pardon Attorney under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson.

Those questioning the legality of a Chief Executive granting his own pardon include Elliot Richardson and Harvard University Constitutional law expert, Professor Raoul Berger.

Says Stanford law professor John Kaplan: "The only way to find out if Nixon can pardon himself in advance is to wait until he does."

ZODIAC