It's not just Biden: Presidents can't be trusted with pardons anymore | Opinion

Following President Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter Biden, the administration is now apparently considering another unique use of executive pardon power in anticipation of what President-elect Donald Trump will do with his new administration.

Biden and his allies are discussing the use of preemptive pardons in order to shield Trump’s enemies from retaliation.

While I understand the desire for such a move, the expanding use and abuse of the pardons show why the power is prime for a constitutional amendment stripping it and how far modern politics has fallen.

Preemptive pardons are a good idea on paper, but bad in practice

The concern surrounding Trump's using the justice system to retaliate against those who have wronged him is a serious one.

After Trump’s insistence that Democrats have weaponized the justice system against him, which I am somewhat sympathetic to, there is no surprise that a man promising retribution would want to return the favor.

From this perspective, the rationale for presidential pardons makes sense. But Trump’s promises of revenge against those who have simply wronged him ? like former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and other members of the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 ? should worry Americans about the use of the justice system to target political opponents.

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Other potential subjects of such a pardon include the prosecutors who have pursued charges against Trump, political opponents, former Trump administration officials and dozens of others. Trump has promised revenge against countless people, and he is preparing his Justice Department to do precisely that.

However, presidential pardons have historically been used to free someone against a specific charge, and they're intended to be used at a president's discretion to carry out justice when the system fails to do so.

Because none of the potential targets of a Trump DOJ is being prosecuted yet, any pardon coming from Biden would need to be exceedingly broad.

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What is being suggested in this case is a blanket pardon for all crimes that the Trump Justice Department may decide to prosecute. The unintended consequences of such a pardon, such as undiscovered heinous crimes that any one of these individuals might have committed, are far too severe to toy with.

It's not hard to imagine a world down the line in which these preemptive pardons escalate to the point that our politicians and their allies are immune from prosecution.

This is obviously a nightmare scenario, and I want our politicians to have the fear of prosecution in their minds when they are acting on our behalf.

Our presidents can no longer be trusted with the pardon power

Once upon a time, presidential pardons were used for the betterment of the nation. President Andrew Johnson pardoned Confederate soldiers in the interest of healing the divided nation, for example.

Most famously, President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon in the interest of de-escalating the very weaponized abuse of justice we are lurching toward now.

By comparison, these modern-day pardons are sure to escalate that division, turning the pursuit of justice into a cat-and-mouse game of who can pardon more of their allies before turning over the keys to the White House.

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The most egregious abuse of the pardon power is a recent one, in which Biden pardoned his son for any offenses he might have committed for an entire decade, even if there is a long history of presidents pardoning relatives and other controversial actions.

In other cases, the pardon power is used selectively. Trump is likely to use this power to pardon Jan. 6 defendants when he takes office, freeing the very people who attempted to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power under his leadership. How can that be defended?

The next constitutional amendment should be to end the presidential pardon power. It is a relic of a time in which our political leaders abided by norms and used the tool to commute wrongful sentences or take action to heal the country. Those days are over, and those leaders are disappearing.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden pardoned Hunter. Expect Trump to pardon Jan. 6 rioters | Opinion