Concepts for US Constitutional Reform
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This post may be outside the scope of this forum, but I wanted to see what others thought. If this is derailing, let me know, and I’ll consider removing it.
I had two ideas targeted to address abuses of presidential power in the form of pardons and court packing.
Suggestion for judicial appointments: In the event a Supreme Court justice dies or resigns, or a new seat is added, the current sitting president should be allowed only to fill the vacancy until the following presidential election. Lifetime appointments should only be made for seats that were vacated during the previous presidential term.
Suggestion for pardons: Presidents should be allowed to initiate clemency for federal crimes, and the clemency will be probationally enacted until the subsequent president opts in to finalize clemency. Clemency that fails to be approved by the subsequent president by the end of their term will be voided. This preserves the immediacy of pardons while disabling unchecked permanent clemency. At worst, abuses of clemency would be unchecked only until the end of a president’s term.
Obviously, each would require a Constitutional Amendment.
Food for thought.
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I think it's fine to have it here, but being a US-specific thing, I probably don't have much to say on it!