Presidential pardons and the cost of selective forgiveness

21 February 2025

It’s anyone’s guess what the United States founding fathers—who, back in 1787, added a presidential pardon to the Constitutional toolkit—would make of how contemporary leaders exercise this extraordinary power. George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the first, second and third presidents of the USA, were among 55 men who framed the new constitution. A reflection of the Westminster system, the pardon was intended to function like a King’s pardon. But the original intent behind the power to “grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment” appears to be vastly different from how we currently see it exercised. At the time, the pardon power enshrined in Article ll. Section 2, Clause 1 of the constitution wasn’t universally supported. Opponents feared there were not enough checks and balances, but were assured Congress would provide those safeguards. Traditionally, presidential pardons provide relief to individuals who have been convicted of a crime and have served all, or part, of a prison sentence. And these pardons only cover federal or national level crimes, not state or civil violations. Presidents can also commute prison sentences imposed by a federal court or the District of Columbia Superior Court.

But like the First Amendment’s right to free speech and Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, the power to pardon has evolved with changing political and legal systems. Nearly 240 years later, it's unlikely the founding fathers imagined that a right to carry a firearm would see pre-school kids regularly practice active shooter drills. According to the Gun Violence Archive, an organisation that aggregates real-time data on shootings gleaned from thousands of sources, there were 504 mass shootings last year with 1,425 children under 17 killed and thousands more injured.

And then there is the issue of what passes as “free speech” in modern America. Typically, a pardon might be given because an incarcerated person has turned their life around or maybe they were sentenced under draconian laws that, for whatever reason, have since been reevaluated. And yet while there has been widespread concern about President Donald Trump's decision to pardon and commute sentences for up to 1500 January 6 Capitol rioters, the first president George Washington had sown the seed.

The first presidential pardon, issued by Washington in 1795, forgave the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion, a Western Pennsylvania farmers' revolt protesting a 1791 excise tax on spirits and stills used to turn excess grain into liquor.

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Presidential pardons and the cost of selective forgiveness

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