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Saturday, December 31, 2022

The Nixon Pardon As a Constitutional Rorschach Test

Gerard N. Magliocca

The next time I teach Constitutional Law I plan to use President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon and Ford's speech defending the pardon as an introduction to some themes in the course. Ford's pardon is a great way to consider the exercise of constitutional discretion. Everybody agrees that Ford was authorized by Article II to pardon Nixon. But was that the right choice?

Ford's pardon raises two starkly different accounts on the rule of law. One is that the pardon was wrong because the failure to hold Nixon criminally accountable for his misconduct undermined the rule of law. The other is that the pardon avoided a divisive trial that would have damaged the rule of law in the eyes of many people (at least this is what Ford said).

Your view on Ford's pardon is probably correlated with your view of what should happen to Donald Trump. If you think that the pardon was correct, then you would be less inclined to think that Trump should be prosecuted. If you think that the pardon was incorrect, then you would be more inclined to think that Trump should be prosecuted.

You can watch Ford's speech here. Happy New Year!


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