The House Judiciary Committee, upset over President Bush's decision to grant clemency to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, will hold a hearing on July 11 to examine presidential clemency power, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the panel's chairman, announced on Tuesday afternoon. No witness list has been released yet.Well, unless Conyers plans a Constitutional amendment, there is really no way to circumscribe the President's pardon power. Sure the President should use the power with discretion and to grant clemency to those whose sentences are really out of whack with any concept of justice, but even if the President were to pardon, say his best friend or a political ally or the criminal husband of a big campaign donor, there is little Congress or the Courts can do about it. The President's pardon power is for all intents and purposes absolute.
"In light of Monday's announcement by the president that he was commuting the prison sentence for Scooter Libby, it is imperative that Congress look into presidential authority to grant clemency, and how such power may be abused," Conyers said in a statement released by his office. "Taken to its extreme, the use of such authority could completely circumvent the law enforcement process and prevent credible efforts to investigate wrongdoing in the executive branch."
The Pardon power is a legacy of monarchal power. The King could grant clemency to people accused and convicted of crimes. In the United States, the Chief Executive was given the power as a check against judicial and prosecutorial bias. While it is permissible to question the criteria a President uses to determine whom to grant clemency, the fact that that President can do it at all is pretty settled law. The fact that Conyers is using as an excuse the Libby Commutation is simply petty partisanship.
This planned hearing is nothing more than a PR ploy for the Democrats to take advantage of a bleeding Bush Administration. Nothing will come of it and the whole event is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
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