No pardons should be allowed during a transition period.

[PJMcK]

9. You wouldn't need a full Constitutional Convention

Last edited Wed Nov 25, 2020, 06:55 PM - Edit history (1)

A change to a president's pardon powers could be done with a Constitutional Amendment which can be done legislatively. The rest of your point is correct and you're right to point out how difficult it is to effectuate and Amendment. There have been only 33 Amendments passed by Congress but only 27 were ratified by the States. (Interestingly, that suggests an average of one Amendment every 9 years of our nation's history.)


ETA: Actually, my math and logic are slightly incorrect. The Bill of Rights has the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. They were nearly contemporaneous with the ratification of the Constitution.

Accordingly, there were only 17 Amendments that were ratified in roughly 240 years. Ergo, one Amendment every 14-1/4 years. The last Amendment to be ratified was the 27th which was ratified in 1992. It delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of representatives and was first proposed in 1789! Prior to that was the 26th which gave 18-year olds the right to vote and it was ratified in 1971.

It's been a long time since we've had an Amendment become law. Our dysfunctional and polarized society prevent any changes.