Justin here. Just saw a new and quite timely paper pop up on SSRN, from Jerry Edwards at WVU Law, relating to the Tina Peters pardon. (Relevant to both the second pardon and the first one, I believe.) The substance is provocative stuff, but as well-reasoned as any of this sort of warp-speed history responding to current controversies. And in less than a day, it’s already at 15,000 downloads (so far).
The abstract:
Recently, President Donald Trump purported to pardon Tina Peters, a former county clerk from Colorado, for state-level offenses. The overwhelming consensus among legal scholars is that President Trump lacks the authority to pardon Peters’s state offenses. This Essay makes an originalist case for why President Trump indeed has this authority. In fact, based on original public meaning, it is the most natural reading of Article II of the Constitution.
