Should US presidents retain the right of pardoning criminals?

I must say I never considered the argument that it gives an elected official and therefore the electorate itself the power to overrule an unelected and often arbitrary judge, I may change my mind on the matter.

 

As intended, the jury power of the people allows for 12 ordinary citizens to rule on a given law or the misapplication of any law on a case by case basis.

Thomas Jefferson called the jury system the best system created by man to keep a government within its delegated powers.

 

Overall, the Presidency now has too much power accrued to it. We need a change in these times. No one three centuries ago had the slightest idea of what we have before us. We can think for now and for ourselves, or we can pretend that doing so is not necessary.

 

This system rests upon the assumption that jurors will have the knowledge and maturity to make rational evaluations and judgements. It is unclear at this time at what point that may have been the case.

 

Accrued to it?

How about usurped by it? By Dick & Dubya, by way of the specious notion advanced by the neocons in those days, the notion of The Unitary Executive.

The humor is that the Constitutional Law Professor "Gunslinger" Obama rather enjoyed what they gave him.

 

Appearances would say that the Congress yielded these excessive powers, but "usurped" could be said to have played a part.

 

It certainly WAS the case in 1735 in NYC when a jury acquitted John Peter Zenger of libel. It was the case when juries acquitted many in the witch trials in New England. It was the case when juries acquitted and eventually nullified the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.

If it is really true that political power flows from Us The People, then the jury power is supremely appropriate.

 

Right, we're down to semantics. But given the rhetoric of Bush & Cheney and the neocons, usurped was far more accurate a term.

But you are right that Congress has abdicated many times, most especially with AUMF

 

I don't think they should be allowed to pardon their own political allies or campaign workers.

 

Agreed. I also believe there is a conflict when pardoning other politicians. Maybe it would work with some kind of separate oversight group.