The Presidential Pardon

By: Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash

Published by Harvard University Press, 2026-01-20

Today, pardons seem to be astonishingly broad and everywhere, with candidates promising pardons and presidents eagerly passing out get-out-of-jail free cards to allies and relatives. Saikrishna Prakash explores the transformation of the pardon—once mostly a rare feat of principled deliberation, now a routine matter of pure political expediency.