The Constitutional provision that grants the President the right to pardon individuals or commute their sentences includes no guidelines or limits upon its use. Historically, however, the pardon has been used mostly to show mercy (e.g. someone has already served many years for committing a crime and is now very ill) or to serve justice (e.g. someone was convicted for a crime and new evidence indicates that he either was not guilty or had an unfair trial).
Recently, both President Biden and President Trump have used the pardon power in ways that go beyond these rationale and should not be allowed. Biden used it to pardon his son, who had been convicted of a felony. There was no claim that his son wasn't guilty, just that this was a political prosecution. The pardon power should not be used to free family members or friends. The possibility of misuse is too great.
Trump pardoned nearly all of the 1500 people who were convicted of crimes in connection with the January 6 storming of the capital. His pardon included both those convicted of non-violent crimes and those convicted of violent crimes, such as attacking a police officer. These are all people who acted at Trump's behest and support him. A president should not be able to pardon people who he is connected with or who help him. He did this previously with Roger Stone.
There have been other misuses in the not-so-distant past—pardons that have had nothing to do with mercy or serving justice; Biden and Trump are not alone in their misuse of this power. But both are guilty of perhaps the most egregious examples of misuse.
Congress should act to provide guidelines for the use of the pardon power.
