Originally Posted by
ZirconBlue
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8. No pardon can be pre-emptive. Only for crimes that have been committed and convicted in the past.
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That is already the case.
Then how does Ford's pardon of Nixon work? Or Carter's pardon of draft dodgers?
I was referring to the
'crimes committed' part of the previous statement.
In other words, a president can say "I pardon person X for shooting someone yesterday", but they can't say "I pardon person X for shooting someone tomorrow".
Ford's pardon of Nixon was for crimes that occurred previously. He didn't list specific crimes, but they were only for things that occurred in a previous, specific time frame.
(Now, you also mentioned the issue of 'convicted in the past', but since someone already brought up the issue of conviction, I assumed you were referring to the 'commission of crime')