Preemptive Pardons: The Rise of an Immune Aristocracy

Pardons have become a much greater part of our lives than they were previously. They were once simply an avenue for prisoners who had exhausted every legal option, usually admitted their guilt, and requested mercy from the U.S. President or their state governor. Now, pardons have become a political maneuver, and that has implications for the state of the nation.

Joe Biden pardoned a long list of his allies, family, and friends before leaving office. Notably, they were not pardoned of specific crimes, but merely pardoned for any criminal behavior over long stretches of time. Thus, we are now in an age of “preemptive pardons”, which is to say, pardons that are not connected with any ongoing or previous charges. While it might be easy to shrug off what seems to be mere pettiness on the part of Biden and his handlers, we ought to consider the implications.

A group of people who have been given pardons due to their closeness to a former president forms a kind of upper class: the legally immune. If every president were to follow this precedent, we would develop an aristocracy that was beyond the reach of the justice system.

The understanding that the criminal justice system at least attempts to be fair and even-handed is a fundamental requisite for peace in a republic. The use of broad preemptive pardons undermines this. The classical understanding of the right of government to exist was partly that it would be a vehicle of justice, but this is violated by favoritism or partiality. Ignoring this historical understanding of government means reinventing it in the modern execution as a mere instrument of power over the weaker and less fortunate. Thus, there appears an inversion of order at the foundation of the state.

When people view the courts and the legal system as mere vessels of power, wielded as political tools, they lose their ability to seek redress. They necessarily see themselves as part of an inferior, perhaps voiceless, class. The division that results is destructive to individual prosperity and societal harmony.

Joe himself said that he would not deliver preemptive pardons because of how they affect the nation’s view by foreign countries. He was correct in that assertion, though he obviously reneged on his stance. He famously stated that nobody is above the law, presumably because he believes that is an important philosophy for a country. He would later name those who are, when he issued them broad pardons:

• Rep. Liz Cheney

• Dr. Anthony Fauci

• General Mark Milley

• All members of the January 6th Committee

• Hunter Biden

• James B. Biden

• Sara Jones Biden

• Valerie Biden Owens

• John T. Owen

• Francis W. Biden

While so many Americans are understandably eager to move on from the Biden Regime as quickly as possible, it is appropriate that we recognize how abusive the administration was, and how the actions taken during his reign undermine the basic tenets of a just State.

It is true that President Trump began his office with the aggressive use of pardons, but none of those were preemptive or broad-sweeping of all criminal activity. They were traditional in the sense that they were proffered in response to abuses in the justice system, whether one is looking at the January 6 cases or the singular entities like Ross Ulbricht (who really should have been given a commutation rather than a pardon).

A pardon given to correct an injustice is an appropriate use of the office, but one offered to prevent justice from ever being done or to reward one’s allies, is abusive against all those who were victimized and left without restitution or acknowledgment. Such pardons make a mockery of the judicial and executive branches of government while harming the very people that both are sworn to serve.