The Constitution grants the president sweeping authority to pardon federal offenses, among the broadest unilateral powers vested in the executive branch. From the Founding era onward, that power has inspired both reverence and warnings of abuse.
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once described the principles behind the pardon power not as a personal act of mercy, but as a judgment that the public welfare is better served by leniency than by continued punishment. Others were far less sanguine. George Mason, often called the Father of the Bill of Rights, warned that unchecked pardon authority could shield wrongdoing, particularly when exercised before conviction, by cutting short investigations and insulating allies from accountability.
