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Supreme Court, Congress, State Court?

Or would there be no ruling?

Rick Smith
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The Mamba
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1 Answers1

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If a President issued a self-pardon, and later was charged with an offense covered by the pardon, the former President would presumably assert the pardon as a defense. At that point the court would have to rule on the validity of the self-pardon.

Since Presidential pardons only cover Federal crimes, this would presumably occur in a US Federal District Court. Such a decision could then be appealed to a Circuit Court of Appeals, and from there to the US Supreme Court, which might or might not hear the appeal. So the decision would be made at some level of the US Federal court system, by a US Judge or Judges or the Justices of the Supreme Court. This being a previously undecided question, it is not unlikely that the Court would choose to hear such a case.

But no such ruling would occur unless Federal charges were brought for an act nominally within the hypothetical self-pardon, and the pardon was raised as a defense.

divibisan
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David Siegel
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  • On the other hand, at that point the act of pardoning himself would become a pretty clear abuse of office, for which he could be prosecuted. – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Jan 11 '21 at 09:43
  • @Shadur I am not aware of a law making "abuse of office" a crime, but there might well be such a law. Exactly what it prohibits, if ther is such a law, would matter. – David Siegel Jan 11 '21 at 15:36