By Matt Underwood Trump has no power to undo Biden’s autopen pardons. It’s a fundamental principle of our legal system, and frankly, it seems almost too obvious to state. Once a pardon is granted, that’s it; it’s done. No president, no Congress, no court can simply revoke it. It’s a settled legal fact.
Even if we were to entertain the possibility of Trump attempting such a thing, it wouldn’t hold water. He might *want* to undo Biden’s pardons, but the authority to do so simply isn’t there. The idea that a president could arbitrarily undo another president’s pardons, especially after the fact, would create utter chaos and instability. Imagine the precedent it would set! Every pardon would be perpetually vulnerable to being overturned by a future administration, rendering the entire pardon process meaningless.
However, in the face of Trump’s actions, and more so given his personality, the obvious doesn’t always prevail. He’s certainly not one to be deterred by established legal principles or, frankly, any rules at all. His past behavior shows a willingness to push boundaries, to test the limits of executive power, and to do whatever he can get away with. We know he’s not shy about declaring things, even if those declarations have no basis in reality. The worry is that he’ll try to do it anyway and that it will create a tangled mess for the courts.
Of course, the use of an autopen further complicates the situation. The fact that many of the pardons were signed using an autopen might muddy the waters further, but the essential point remains: the pardon itself, regardless of how it was signed, is the operative document. This would be a fight the courts would have to sort out.
The real problem lies in the fact that, in some ways, he can get away with it. If no one with real authority stops him, then he’s essentially created a new power for himself. The courts could become overwhelmed. We could find ourselves in a situation where the pardoned individuals are arrested and the courts are tied up in knots. This kind of power grab is exactly what people fear.
Some people suspect that Trump wants to establish the precedent that pardons can be undone. Given the questionable pardons he himself issued, he may feel the need to preserve his own legal future. If a future president could undo his pardons, it would put his allies and even himself at legal risk. It would not be shocking if his people are behind this.
What we are seeing is that Trump’s actions, in this context and others, are a direct challenge to the foundations of the legal system. It’s about testing the limits, seeing what he can get away with, and potentially reshaping the balance of power in his favor. And even if Trump himself were to realize the implications of undermining the pardon power, his allies might not care.
The implications of all this are far-reaching. A future president undoing pardons would be a disastrous precedent. It could make the justice system seem highly politicized. It could be viewed as simple retribution. And, to be clear, it would also give Trump the grounds to whine about how unfairly he is being treated.
In the end, while there might be some desire to fix the process by changing it or reforming it, it’s not a legal way to do it.