Pardon who? Hunter Biden case renews ethical debate over use and limits of peculiar presidential power

"Hunter Biden will be spared potential jail time not simply over his convictions for gun and tax offenses, but any 'offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in' during the period Jan. 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024."

"As a scholar of ethics and political philosophy, I find that much of the public debate around pardons needs to be framed within a more fundamental question: Should there be a presidential pardon power at all in a democracy governed by the rule of law?"

"The roots of the presidential pardon in the U.S. can be traced back to English law. The English Parliament legally placed an absolute pardon power in the hands of the monarch in 1535 during the reign of King Henry VIII."

"Although the power to pardon is probably as old as politics, the Founding Fathers followed the English model in establishing the presidential pardon in the Constitution, but the question arises whether such powers should have limitations."

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